Shenanigans at Sassacre High
by jormungandRising
Summary: Karkat is about to begin his first year of public school as a ninth grader at Sassacre High. But some of the students at Sassacre are more than they seem, and Karkat may or may not be one of them... Humanstuck (sort of) superhero AU. Not a super-shippy fic but will feature Spider8reath, Arasol, and pale Solkat, among others. T for Karkat's mouth and possible blood.
1. Chapter 1

_Meteor City, for whatever reason, has long been the home of many a superhuman being. Be they heroes or villains, these people all find their way to the heart of the metropolis to search for their destinies and identities. _

_At the current date, said city is the abode of eleven powerful heroes, with strange faces and strange pasts. An astute observer may notice that these heroes' false faces bear strange similarities, but most chalk this up to coincidence. Meteor City also houses four supervillains and their legions of minions. Despite the presence of said 11 heroes, these villains have not attempted to leave the city. The reasoning behind this is unclear at the moment. Perhaps they are simply fans of the city's delicious and world-renowned secret-recipe chocolate fudge. _

_These beings are in constant conflict. Even the heroes disagree; their styles of defending the world differing greatly. Some heroes prefer peaceful action, simply binding criminals and leaving them for the police. Some are more…violent. But all of the heroes agree on one thing: they are not united, and they need to become so._

_All four major villains would politely disagree. _

BRRRRINNGGGGG!

Karkat groaned, mumbling cuss words and slamming his fist down on the incessantly wailing alarm clock by his bedside. The digital display stated the time to be 6:05 AM, which as far as Karkat was concerned was far too early for any sane human to be awake.

Moaning and groaning, he pulled himself out of the cocoon of bedsheets that he had wrapped around himself once again. One of his sleep socks was still on and the other was barely hanging, his toe shoved through a hole in the sock's ankle.

"You awake?" shouted his (probably hung-over) father from the room next door.

"Fuck you," Karkat groaned back. He stretched himself, his back cracking.

He prepared his own breakfast (Crunchy Crabs—the one and only crab-shaped marshmallow cereal!) and piled some new notebooks into his freshly bought backpack. He would be attending public school for the first time this year, as a freshman at the local high school. For whatever reason, his father hadn't allowed him to go until this year.

Karkat had always been curious about public school. He knew it was probably a stinking, festering hellhole of assholes and losers and losers who smelled like their assholes, but he was still curious. His father's idea of a good education mostly revolved around teaching Karkat how to effectively use a knife for stabbing, stabbing, occasionally woodcarving, and then more stabbing. Karkat knew at least eighty different ways to kill somebody with a knife, but he barely passed the mandatory standardized homeschool tests he took every year. If he wanted to be a serial killer, then he was perfectly set up.

Every summer without fail, Karkat asked his dad if he could go to public school that year. The answer was always no, despite the many reasons Karkat invented (I could learn so much, I want to make friends, I can get practice using the dummy knife on bullies!). The trouble was, though, Karkat had no idea _why._

"I'll tell you when you're older," Karkat's dad would always say. "When you're older you'll understand." And now, finally, Karkat was fourteen and old enough—but he still didn't understand anything.

He slung his Batman backpack over his right shoulder and prepared to slouch out the door when his father ambled down the stairs.

Karkat's dad was a tall, slender, constantly hung-over drunk who always insisted that Karkat call him Jack. He had a scar over his eyebrow that he liked to claim was won in a battle with the legendary supervillain Number Eight, but Karkat was almost certain that the only real battles Jack had fought occurred over a bar table.

"Kan…Kit…Karkat," he mumbled, stumbling on the bottom stair and catching himself on the banister. "A word…"

"Sure, Dad."

"Oh, _fuck_ that's a nasty headache…son. Be careful out there, and if somethin'…if somethin' weird happens, get home _immediately._" For a moment, Jack was entirely lucid, his eyes focused and fixed on Karkat's face.

"If something weird happens, I promise I won't delay in heading for home," Karkat promised, his hand resting on the doorknob.

"Swear on Vantas honor," Jack demanded. "Somethin' out of the ordinary, anythin' out of the ordinary, you come straight home to me and don't delay."

"I swear on the Vantas family honor," Karkat dutifully intoned. Jack slumped down, once again returning to the image of the hung-over drunk.

"Good…that's good…I'm gettin' some coffee…"

"Bye, Dad," Karkat replied, finally leaving the door and heading towards the blindingly bright sunrise. He had the strange feeling that today would be a very long day.

Karkat lived in a suburb of the main city, and all the houses looked nearly the same. His bus stop was a short way up the road near a stop sign, and he could see a few other students already waiting there.

"Check it out, who's the newb?" one of them called out when he caught sight of Karkat.

"Hey, it's that weirdo Vantas kid. You know, the one with the crazy serial killer dad who lives all alone in the house down the road?"

"What's he doin' up here?"

Karkat ignored them, reaching the stop sign and standing very still and determined. He was _dying_ to let loose and cuss them into oblivion, but instead he exercised what little control he had and stayed quiet.

Fucking assholes could go suck his bulge, he was the most mature out of any of them.

"Whoa, check it out, that asshole's actually got red eyes!" Karkat's head snapped around, and he glared daggers at the kid who spoke.

"Oh, man, he does, that's _freaky!_"

"How much pot d'you bet his mom smoked?"

"All the pot. _All_ of it." The jeering grew stronger and louder, and Karkat was seething. He bit his tongue in a nearly futile attempt to keep back the tide of rage.

"I bet he doesn't even _have_ a mom! She was probably some whore who left his papa when she saw what a bizarre-looking freak she popped out of her gut. Plop! There goes the mutant!" That was it. That was fucking _it._

"My mother was no whore," Karkat said softly.

"It speaks!" one of the boys shouted in mock terror. "What was that you said, _mutant?_"

"I _said,_ my mother was _not_ a fucking _whore_," Karkat repeated, looking the offending new student straight in the eye. His scarlet irises burned straight through the other boy's brown ones. "If you're curious whose was, though, I suggest you go take a look in the mirror. But then again, if you did, your eyes might melt from the sheer horror of it. Mere mortals were not meant to look upon such a monstrosity."

There was a chorus of oohs, and a crowd began to form. Why were there so many fucking people at this bus stop?

"Fight, fight, fight!" someone started chanting, and the rest of the mob joined in. Karkat just kept staring at the boy who spoke, letting his eyes do the rest of the work.

The boy turned tail and fled, stopping just past the crowd at the edge of the bus stop, and the group dispersed, muttering in disappointment. Karkat clenched his fist. Coward.

The school bus arrived: a hulking, yellow monstrosity full of more people than Karkat had ever seen in one place before. Karkat found himself last in line to board, and he walked down the aisle cautiously, searching for a seat. All of the available spots were immediately filled with backpacks.

"Hey, sit here!" someone said brightly from behind Karkat, and he turned to immediately be pulled down into a seat near the front of the bus.

The kid who had grabbed him grinned. He was a dorky-looking guy, with buck teeth and glasses, and he was wearing a fucking _bowtie._ In sum, he looked ridiculous.

"What the fuck are you supposed to be? A clown?" Karkat asked grumpily.

"My name's John Egbert! Nice to meet you!" John extended his arm to shake hands with Karkat, who stared at his hand as though it was diseased.

"Why are you shoving your appendage in my face?"

"Come on, shake hands! What's your name?" John was grinning, and Karkat reluctantly shook hands with him.

_Splurt!_ A stream of water shot from John's bowtie, triggered by something in John's hand. Karkat was hit directly in the face, and he spluttered angrily.

"What the ever-loving _fuck_ was that supposed to be, Egbert?" he demanded. John laughed.

"It's a water squirter! Nobody else falls for my tricks anymore, so I had to try this new one on you," John said brightly.

"Fuck you very much," Karkat grumbled, and he crossed his arms, scooting to the very edge of the seat. Most of his body was in the aisle, and his Batman backpack acted as a barrier between him and John, who looked very disappointed.

"Heeeeeeeey, John," someone drawled from the seat behind them as she draped herself over the back of the seat. "Who's the newbie?"

Karkat studied the visitor. She had suntanned skin and dirty blonde hair, and her eyes were partly hidden by large, round glasses. She was grinning an easy grin, and her chest was pressed against the seat, showing off ample cleavage that Karkat really did not need to see.

"Vriska, this is Karkat. Karkat, this is my girlfriend Vriska!" John declared. Karkat shrank down in his seat, adjusting the Batman backpack to hide John's face.

"Oooh, a newbie! You just move here, then?"

"I've lived in this neighborhood all my fucking life. I was homeschooled," Karkat grumbled, immediately disliking the blonde. Vriska grinned.

"What grade are you going into?" John asked.

"Ninth," Karkat grunted.

"Hey, sweet, we're the same year! What's your schedule?" John demanded excitedly, leaning over Karkat's backpack. His bowtie was still dripping water from a nearly-invisible nozzle.

"Fuck you," Karkat replied. John pouted.

"You're no fun," he said as he made puppy-dog eyes over Karkat's school things. Karkat tried to edge even further away from the prankster and fell off the seat into the aisle. Vriska laughed loudly before leaning even further over the seat and grabbing Karkat's backpack.

"Hey!" he shouted, scrambling up onto the seat in an attempt to snatch it back. Vriska unzipped it slowly, holding it out of Karkat's reach, before pulling out a printed piece of paper that bore Karkat's class assignments.

"First period: Physics 1 with Mr. Fenton." Karkat made a grab for the paper, but missed. "Second period: Honors Chorus with Ms. Naylor the Wailer—hey, you're taking a chorus class? Very manly," Vriska cackled, dangling the schedule above Karkat's head.

"Hey, come on! I needed a fucking fine arts class!" he protested loudly.

"Third period: English 1 with Mr. Hussie," Vriska continued over Karkat's protests. "And fourth period he's got Tech Ed with Dr. Captor," she finished, shoving Karkat's schedule paper back in his backpack. John checked his schedule.

"Cool, we've got three classes together! See you in Physics, Karkat!" John announced brightly. "And English, and Tech Ed…" Karkat groaned.

He seized his backpack out of Vriska's hands just as the bus came to a stop at the local public school, Sassacre High. The school was a squat brick building with a large row of doors at the front. It was peppered with bizarre-shaped windows.

Karkat held a yellow paper map of the school in his left hand as he pushed open a door with his right. It seemed that before he went to his first class, he would have to go to his 'homeroom' teacher, whose name was printed at the top of his schedule. His homeroom teacher happened to be a Mr. Andrew Hussie, the same teacher who would be in charge of Karkat's English class.

Homerooms were assigned at random to students within a certain grade; there was no logical alphabetical order whatsoever. Luckily for Karkat, neither John nor Vriska was in his homeroom class, but several of the jeering boys from earlier were.

Karkat slouched into an open seat between a large boy in gym shorts and a girl with red sunglasses who was licking a swirly lollipop larger than Karkat's head. The girl with the glasses turned to face Karkat and…and _sniffed_ at him. What the fuck?

"Your shirt smells delicious," she declared, staring at Karkat's chosen Iron Man T-shirt.

"Fuck off," he replied grumpily. The girl with red glasses continued to look at (and sniff at) Karkat's shirt until he edged his seat away from her.

"Please, refrain from such lewd language," requested the boy in gym shorts, turning his head to look at Karkat. Karkat replied with his middle finger just as Mr. Hussie entered the room.

"Sup everyone," the teacher declared robotically. He was tall and thin, wearing a green t-shirt and cargo shorts. "Hope you had a cool summer, watched a few movies, et cetera." The class stared at Mr. Hussie. "Anyone find any wolf heads in their closets? No one? I did," he continued before realizing that nobody in the room actually gave a shit.

"Mmm, green apple," murmured the girl with the red glasses under her breath. Karkat rolled his eyes.

"So…lockers. Since the school says everyone has to use lockers this year, I'm handing out papers with locker numbers and then you guys can go to your lockers and put your shit away. When the bell rings, head to your first class and admire the horse paintings on your way out."

Karkat's locker was number 69, and he dutifully left the classroom, trying to avoid admiring the horse paintings on his way out. Some of them were more than a little bit alarming.

After emptying his backpack into the locker and keeping only some pencils and a notebook, Karkat returned to his homeroom, only to hear the bell ring for first period.

According to his map, physics was in a portable behind the school, so he followed the stream of students and tried not to get swept away until he reached the doors to leave the building. A crowd had gathered around the classroom door, and Karkat shoved past them impatiently, wondering what the fuck they were waiting for. The physics classroom door was cracked open, and he stepped in—

_Splash!_ A full bucket of water crashed down on Karkat's head, drenching him. He clenched his fist and reached for the knife his father always made him carry, remembering all too late that he'd left it at home (apparently the school officials had a problem with weaponry?).

"John Egbert, I am going to _kill_ you," he growled, knowing immediately whose prank this had been. John and Vriska were seated at two desks on the opposite end of the classroom, laughing raucously.

"Oh man, he fell for it, he actually fell for it," Vriska cried, grinning widely. The other students filed in around Karkat, trying not to step in the puddle of water. Karkat growled.

He slowly and deliberately removed the bucket from his head, placing it on a nearby shelf. He walked to a desk in the back of the classroom and sat down, leaving behind a trail of wet footprints and wringing water out of his messy dark hair.

A fart resounded around the classroom—John had sneakily placed a Whoopee Cushion on Karkat's chair. He grit his teeth.

Finally, the physics teacher entered the classroom.

Mr. Fenton was a tall, thin, reedy-looking man with a thatch of strawberry-blonde hair and a face that made him look like a high school student who'd been stretched on a rack. He was wearing a Star Wars shirt, and now that Karkat looked around he noticed that the entire classroom was covered in Star Wars and superhero paraphernalia. Mr. Fenton appeared to particularly favor real-life heroes, and there was a life-sized poster of Lady Luck hanging behind his desk next to a cardboard standup of the villain Prankster. Vriska had been posing sarcastically next to Prankster when Mr. Fenton walked in, and she now crept cautiously back to her seat, her dirty-blonde hair falling in her eyes.

"Good morning everybody, and may the Force be with you!" Mr. Fenton declared. Half the class groaned and the other half laughed. John tossed a paper airplane at the teacher, who caught it out of the air and redirected it to the trash can. "Welcome to Physics One, where we will dissect the universe one atom at a time. As a warm-up exercise, I want to discuss a topic that comes up all too frequently in modern physics circles—superhumans. How do superpowers and extraordinary abilities fit into our scientific image of the universe? And where do you think the heroes hide in their spare time?"

The class broke out into eager discussion. John was particularly engaged, shouting across several tables at another friend of his named Dave. Vriska, on the other hand, was oddly quiet. She leaned back in her chair, kicking her feet up on the table, and pulled out several sticks of bubble gum, which she immediately began to chew.

"Thup," someone lisped at Karkat. He turned to see a tall, skinny kid seated next to him. "They're idiotth, ignore them. I've been doing it for yearth."

"And who the fuck are you?"

"Tholluckth Captor at your thervithe. Who are you?"

"Karkat Vantas." Karkat took a good long look at Sollux. He was bony and about six feet tall, with a bent, slouching back and 3D glasses covering his eyes. He was wearing a superhero t-shirt too, but his advertised a real-life hero: Wisp, one of the big city's eleven main heroes.

"I thee you met John."

"You mean the dumb as fuck prankster who thought it'd be fucking funny to rig traps for me on my first-ever day of public school? Fuck yes, I met John."

"Yeah, he wath pretty awful to me too. It'th jutht hith perthonality, he wath bullied a lot in middle thchool tho now he thinkth it'th cool to meth with everyone elthe," Sollux explained. "It'th a terrible eckthcuthe, really. I don't know how Vrithka putth up with it, and she'th a bitch herthelf."

"So who the fuck are these people? I've been homeschooled, I don't know anyone."

"Okay. You already met John and Vrithka. The douche with the thunglatheth that John'th talking to ith Dave Thtrider, he thinkth he'th really cool. Necktht to Dave ith hith couthin Rothe. I don't know Rothe very well, but she'th one of the thchool'th lethbianth. She and her girlfriend are really weird. Over there near the fishtank ith Eridan, he'th an inthufferable prick." Sollux continued to go around the room, naming the students and providing his (mostly derogatory) opinions of them. He only seemed to like two people in the room: a quiet girl called Aradia who was standing in the corner, and another girl, Feferi, who was arguing with Eridan in a corner.

The class never did seem to actually come to order, instead becoming more and more raucous and disobedient. Mr. Fenton had been distracted by the entrance of another teacher whom he was friends with, and John now reigned supreme over the classroom. He was currently rigging Mr. Fenton's laptop to spray him with confetti when he next opened it.

The bell rang at the end of first period, and Karkat gathered up his notebook. He and Sollux had spent the class debating Lady Luck's spider-related powers and how they fit in with her main motif, and they'd lost track of time.

As Karkat was crossing the grass to return to the main building, the sun seemed to disappear out of the sky. Darkness fell suddenly and rapidly, like somebody had simply turned off the sun, and thick, oily clouds filled the air, moving at incredible speeds.

"Holy shit," Karkat murmured, clutching his notebook tightly. "Holy fucking _shit_."

He looked around for Sollux, but the bespectacled teen was nowhere to be found. The only remaining people were running for cover in the main building, but Karkat found himself rooted to the ground, transfixed by the oily blackness in the sky. He couldn't have run if he wanted to.

He watched, hypnotized, as a slim figure descended from the air in a halo of pitch-black thorns. She smiled.

Holy motherfucking grub-eating _shit._ Karkat knew who that was, he had seen her face on the front of newspapers: Midnight Star, one of the most powerful real-world villains in the history of the earth.

Karkat took a stumbling step backwards, but black, thorny tentacles rose from the ground to wrap around his ankles, wet and slimy and stronger than steel. His father's words that morning rang in his ears: _Somethin' out of the ordinary happens, anythin' out of the ordinary, you come straight back home._

Had his father known that Star was coming?

* * *

**A/N: Hey! So this is the beginning of my new story, because I'm physically incapable of actually focusing on only one thing at one time! Actually, this is sort of more like a teaser for the story, since I'd like to get some more finished and pre-written before actually publishing it. The only reason I've posted this right now is because I have no freaking clue how long this story is going to be and if it's going to take me till next year to finish it, I'm gonna need some inspiration. Please, please, _please_ leave a review if you like the concept or have advice, because God knows I need it. **

**I decided to write this fic to challenge my skills in working with other people's characters. The rules I gave myself were these ones: One, I have to write all of the trolls as heroes and all of the kids as villains, no matter what their personalities canonically are. Two, I have to still keep the characters true to their canon selves-I'm not allowed to make them too far out of character. Constructive criticism as to how I can do the latter in a better manner would be awesome, especially when I get around to posting later chapters. **

**That's all! Bye! XD**


	2. Chapter 2

The villainess spoke, but her words were incomprehensible, part of a language that no human knew. Her glowing eyes, purple like amethysts, locked onto Karkat's own red ones.

"Look out!" someone shouted from above, and Karkat found himself being gripped tightly around the waist and yanked from solid ground, his stomach turning wildly. He was deposited on the roof of the school building, and his rescuer turned to face him.

Lady Luck grinned, her mouth full of sharp white fangs.

"Next time a major villain attacks a school for no good reason, you should probably run," she suggested, making eye contact. Her left eye really did have seven pupils, just like they said in the newspaper stories. She crossed her arms, the gold neoprene and Kevlar of her super suit creasing slightly. "Wait here."

Lady Luck flew off, her cerulean wings leaving a trail of blue glitter behind her. She flew figure eights in front of Midnight Star, who watched her impassively.

"K'naa gl'bal flari," Star said, and Lady Luck laughed.

"Glub all fairy yourself!" she hollered back, and tossed eight blue dice through the air. A cerulean sword appeared in her hand and she swung towards Rose, who dodged away backwards—straight into the optic beam of the Psionic, who had come around from behind one of the portables. Karkat watched with wide eyes as the superhumans dueled before him in a stunning display of power.

"Excuse me, but I think you're in quite the wrong place." Karkat jumped. Before he could turn around, he felt cold steel on his jaw.

"Move and you're dead." Karkat whimpered, hearing footsteps behind him, and his attacker revealed himself.

Prankster looked even more threatening in real life than he did in the photographs, the sapphire-blue mask creased over his nose and the massive hammer strapped across his back stunning in their detail. He wore blue embroidered gloves and a sapphire-blue Kevlar costume that perfectly matched his eyes. There was a rainbow bowtie at his collar, and it seemed like an irrelevant and ridiculous accessory in comparison with the rest of Prankster's wardrobe.

"Why the fuck are you attacking a fucking _school?_" Karkat whispered in bewilderment, his Adam's apple bobbling against Prankster's knife. Prankster smiled an easy smile. He had a major overbite problem.

"Shenanigans," was his only response. "Now, you can surrender easily, or we can fight it out. Your choice," Prankster declared.

"What in the ever-loving ass-scraping fuck are you talking about?" Karkat demanded, feeling the sharp knife blade at his throat and wondering what the fuck was taking those superheroes so fucking _long._

"I'm talking about our situation here. You can surrender to us, or we can fight it out. Your choice, but we're not leaving here without you," Prankster said easily. "And don't think those hero friends of yours will help you. Star can occupy _them_ all day."

Just then, someone slammed Prankster over the head firmly with the blunt part of a double-ended trident.

"Take that, you blowhole!" How many superheroes were there here, anyways? Prankster pulled himself up off the ground easily, glaring at the heroine Pisces, who glared right back.

"You shouldn't interfere in things that don't concern you," Prankster said, meeting Pisces' eyes. "Back off before I'm forced to do something that wasn't in my agenda."

"What, like get your glubbing butt kicked?" Pisces shouted in his face, slamming Prankster in the gut with her trident.

Prankster wasn't prepared, and he was knocked over the side of the roof by the impact. Unfortunately, the prongs of the weapon didn't pierce his suit.

"Are you okay?" Pisces asked a very shocked and slightly terrified Karkat. "Sir?" The most that Karkat could manage in the way of a response was a mostly undignified murmur of 'myeh.'

"Hands off the target, Pisces. He's mine," someone deadpanned from elsewhere on the roof. Target? What target? Sassacre High seemed to be turning into a superhuman rendezvous point, and Karkat was stuck in the middle as Clockmaster made his way smoothly towards Pisces, reaching up with a single hand to adjust his sunglasses.

"Get out of here," Pisces menaced, hefting her trident again. Her pink mask creased into an angry frown. "There's nofin for you to take, why are you after a glubbing _school_?" Clockmaster's face remained impassive.

"Why are _you_ here?" he replied nonchalantly.

"None of your glubbing business."

"Well, then it's none of yours why I'm here too," Clockmaster said smoothly, "just back off from the mortal and we'll be on our way."

"Yeah," declared Prankster. Damn it, Karkat had forgotten that the villain could fly—and apparently Pisces had, too. Before either of them could react, Prankster had taken Pisces' hand to shake. She tried to pull away, but a trigger went off and a stream of acid squirted from Prankster's bowtie straight into Pisces' eyes.

Pisces screamed and reached up to wipe the burning liquid away from her oculars as Karkat backed towards the edge of the roof, not really knowing where he was going but desperate to escape the two villains.

Just then, Psionic slammed into Karkat hard as he took a hit from one of Midnight Rose's tentacles, knocking Karkat forward into Prankster, who fell over, narrowly missing Clockmaster (who flashstepped away).

Psionic extricated himself from the mess, and Karkat did his best to scramble away from all of the heroes. He stumbled over the lip of the roof, and barely managed to regain his balance.

Suddenly, there was once again a sword at his throat. Clockmaster had flashstepped behind Karkat to threaten him. The time-changing supervillain dragged Karkat bodily towards Prankster, who had stood up and was currently deflecting Pisces with well-aimed bursts of wind. For a moment, Karkat wondered how the fuck wind fit in with Prankster's motif, but then he remembered what the hell was happening and proceeded to freak the fuck out.

"Lemme go lemme go lemme fucking go!" he protested, trying to wriggle out of Clockmaster's firm grip, but the sword just moved closer to his jugular and he quickly shut up.

"Stop," an emotionless voice commanded, and Wisp appeared before Karkat and Clockmaster, extending her hand and wrapping the two in a neat bubble of telekinetic power. She detached Clockmaster from Karkat before throwing the villain up against the sharp upper branches of a pine tree.

Karkat's mouth was moving like that of a fish out of water. _Why the fuck were there so many heroes here?_ Did they all just live within five minutes of the school or something? Sassacre High wasn't even _in_ Meteor City, it was on the outskirts. It was a fucking suburb! This made absolutely no sense.

"Fuck off!" Prankster hollered, distracted for a moment. Pisces landed a hit, knocking him over again, but Prankster just rolled back to his feet. Wisp regarded him impassively, her hair floating eerily around her face as she levitated in the air.

Karkat ran for the edge of the building, praying that maybe there would be another superhero there who could help him. He saw no one, only a drop that would break both his legs if he decided to jump.

Clockmaster and Prankster were both at his school and both of them appeared to be targeting _him._ As Karkat's panic reflex began to be replaced by his mind working, he began to wonder why.

All he knew was that he had to get home—as fast as he possibly could. Midnight Star was still occupying Psionic and Lady Luck, both of whom were hard-pressed to dodge the flailing, disgusting black tentacles.

Just then, two more heroes appeared around a corner of one of the portables: the partner pair of Kitten and Horseman. Unfortunately, neither one had many powers that worked against superpowered opponents, and they joined in the fight against Midnight Star without even noticing the other two villains on the roof. And suddenly Blind Justice was there too. Welp.

Prankster broke away from Pisces, having landed a hit on her with his comically oversized warhammer that laid her out flat. She appeared to be unconscious. He jumped over to help Clockmaster fight Wisp, who quickly became overwhelmed.

It was then that Karkat saw her do something that wasn't on record as a power she possessed. Wisp narrowly missed being beheaded by Clockmaster's katana, and suddenly there were eight of her encircling the two villains. Wait, _what?_ Karkat was a superhero geek and no one had ever heard of any hero doing something like that, or for that matter any villain.

Having been distracted by Wisp's sudden new ability, Karkat failed to notice the fourth villain sneaking up behind him.

"Hi!" she declared excitedly as she snapped her fingers, teleporting both herself and Karkat into an abandoned portable classroom.

Karkat backed towards the door, trying the knob and finding it locked. Go figure.

"My name's Nephrite! And you're the guy that Prankster wants me to catch! Please tell me you're not going to fight me," the new villain bubbled. There was only one response that came to the top of Karkat's mind.

"Isn't that the name of a villain in Sailor Moon?" Karkat had never seen said anime, but he'd heard enough about it on the internet. Nephrite growled, her lips curling to reveal very sharp incisors. Her eyes narrowed and he swore he saw her hackles rise.

"WOOF! NEVER MENTION THAT TO ME! THEY STOLE THAT NAME! IT WAS MINE FIRST! WOOF WOOF WOOF!" She was barking. She was actually _barking_ at him. Karkat pressed himself even further into the corner. Nephrite's wolf ears twitched in agitation.

"Uh…sure…now, please let me go, because I'm fucking terrified and I would really not like to be devoured by a wolf-themed villain with a really stupid name," Karkat whimpered, his voice shaking in a manner that he would later fervently deny. Nephrite pouted, her ears shrinking a little bit.

"But Prankster says I'm not allowed to let you go."

"What does Prankster know? Maybe he, uh…maybe he really wants a different short high school student? I doubt he'd want anything with me, I'm not special or anything. I'm just kind of here," Karkat rambled, forgoing the cuss words for once and swearing inwardly never to leave his knife at home again, _ever._

They were then interrupted by a chainsaw breaking a hole in the side of the portable.

"I thought they would be here," Seamstress declared triumphantly to her lazily grinning partner. Capricorn squeezed the bicycle horn he held in his hand, not bothering to respond.

Nine. There were nine fucking heroes here and all four of Meteor City's villains, and they appeared to fucking be fighting over Karkat. What the _fuck _was going on? Nephrite pouted, her ears drooping some more.

"Party poopers. You guys are so rude!"

"Silence yourself and surrender," commanded Seamstress, still hefting the buzzing chainsaw (at this point, with only one hand). Her eye-catching emerald and scarlet uniform was spotted with white dust from the wall.

"Woof."

"You oughtta motherfuckin do what my bitchtits angry sis here says," Capricorn drawled. "She ain't gonna motherfuckin take any sass."

"Seamstress, I think you're forgetting something," replied Nephrite. Her eyes were trained on the heroine. "We had an agreement. Do you want one of us to cease following that truce?"

"I do not know what you are talking about," said Seamstress smoothly.

"You've forgotten about _this_," Nephrite announced like she was revealing a game-changing secret. From thin air she produced a strange-looking orb covered in what looked like candy corn, which she waved in front of Seamstress's face before allowing it to vanish once again. Seamstress's cool broke for a moment, and her jaw dropped open before she snapped it shut again.

"That is a dirty move," she replied, choosing her words carefully. In the meantime, Karkat began creeping towards the hole in the wall that had given Seamstress and Capricorn entrance.

To his alarm, the hole opened up fifty feet in the air above the parking lot of the school, suspended by Nephrite's weird space-related abilities. He staggered for a moment, but then a fight broke out between Nephrite and Capricorn. The hero did something that shook the portable, and Karkat lost his balance, falling out of the gaping hole and into midair.

He closed his eyes, bracing for impact. He didn't yet know the sensation of feeling all his bones crunch into dust on the pavement, but he could imagine it. He felt hot tears leaking from the corners of his eyes—some first day of school this was turning out to be. He would die before he finished six hours of state-regulated education.

Firm arms wrapped around him and a voice reassured, "Don't worry! Rufio is here to save you!" Karkat whimpered, turning his head to see that he was now clutched in the super-strong arms of the city's tenth superhero.

"Thanks," he replied weakly.

"No problem! Seriously, it was nothing. You should have seen the size of the lady I saved the other day, I swear she weighed a thousand pounds!" Rufio laughed. Karkat could hear the loud beating of the hero's wings above him.

Rufio deposited Karkat on the ground right outside the building.

"You should probably get in there, they've hidden everybody in the inner hallways. It's kind of stupid, putting them all in the same place, but Kitten and Horseman are watching the building." Karkat nodded mutely, but as soon as Rufio took off again, he turned away from the high school and ran as fast as he could in the direction of his home.

He ran and ran and ran and ran, clutching his side as an agonizing cramp struck him but refusing to stop.

His home came into sight, but someone was standing in the way of his arrival. Someone very familiar.

"Nice try," Prankster complimented, showing off that easy, bucktoothed smile again. "But you made a crucial mistake. See, the wind always tells me where people are. It makes it much easier to pull tricks on them! And when the person I'm looking for is someone like you, things become even simpler."

"What the fuck do you want from me?" Karkat demanded wearily, trying to hide his exhaustion and fear. He couldn't be afraid, he had put up with enough bullshit today and he had pretty much encountered every superhero Meteor City had to offer.

"It's not about what I want. It's about what the feltmen want, and I can't deny them their quarry," Prankster said smoothly, revealing almost nothing. Feltmen? That word itself was total nonsense, and Karkat opened his mouth to say as much but the breath in his mouth seemed to disappear.

That was when Karkat's dad stepped out the front door of his house, spotted Prankster, and chucked a switchblade at the villain. Somehow, miraculously, Jack hit home, and Karkat had never been gladder that his father was so stab-happy. Prankster twisted around and stared blankly at the knife now embedded to the handle in the unprotected shoulder joint of his armor, before hollering in pain and flying away.

"Have fun at school today?" Jack asked grumpily. He was still holding a half-full vodka bottle in his left hand that he had to have been drinking from before he threw the knife. Karkat groaned.

"That's one way to put it," he replied frankly.

Back at the school, the three remaining villains suddenly ceased their attack, melting into nowhere the same way they'd arrived. Lady Luck practically screamed in frustration. As the ten heroes were scouring the school grounds for the vanished villains, they squabbled amongst each other in frustration.

"What the fuck were you thinking, breaking into my fight?" Lady Luck demanded of Wisp, who stared blankly back.

"I did not intrude upon your fight. I merely intervened, after Pisces and Psionic had already done so. I saw no reason to deny you assistance when you obviously needed it."

"You're a fucking idiot!"

Elsewhere, Blind Justice and Horseman were having a similar argument.

"Your methods are inappropriate and far too violent. You must cease," Horseman ordered, earning a sharp-toothed smirk from Blind Justice.

"I uphold the law by all means necessary."

"You severely injure every enemy you capture. I do not wish for you to involve yourself in a fight I could have handled."

"You're an idiot, half of Meteor City's heroes were already there! How couldn't I join the party?" Blind Justice protested. Horseman groaned.

"Your actions are inappropriate for your station. You will cease."

"_You'll_ cease."

"Hey there ewerybody, did I miss anyfin?" From around the building appeared the eleventh superhero of Meteor City in all his purple-caped, hipsterish glory.

"Only a massive boss-level fight," Pisces retorted, having healed herself from Prankster's earlier attack. "You glubbing idiot! What the shell were you fin-king, shoaling up so late?"

"I had to prepare my wwardrobe."

"And quit doing that fin with your voice. Everyone knows it's fake."

"Jeez, Pisces, you're so fuckin strict."

"Oh my _cod_, Aquathing!" Pisces shouted. The eleventh hero looked offended.

"That is _not_ my super name," he protested. "My super name is Sharkbite!"

"So why did you tell every single passerby you saved for your first whole year as a hero that you were called Aquathing?"

That was a bit of exaggeration in Pisces' statement, and she knew it. See, Aquathing had originally been a villain going by the name of Dualscar, further south in Angel City. Pisces had been on vacation as her alter ego in the city when Dualscar had actually managed a slightly competent attack, and since Angel City didn't have a resident hero she was forced to step in. Through a series of shenanigans (which definitely did NOT involve Pisces' first kiss) she managed to persuade him to use his abilities for good. He hadn't been able to come up with a good hero name, so he'd gone without at first, until people started asking him who he was. He responded with "Aqua…thing?" and it had been adopted by the press, thus sealing his fate.

Currently, Aquathing was looking very offended.

"I did _not_ tell anyone I was called Aqua anyfin. It was only part of a name I wwas considerin and you decided to make it official."

"According to the law, your super name is Aquathing. Deal with it," Blind Justice chipped in, having escaped from her argument with Horseman.

"Go awway. And the _name_ is Sharkbite." Blind Justice bared her teeth at the irritated male hero. That was definitely part of her shift into hero identity; no normal human being had teeth that sharp.

Just then, the bell rang inside the school to signal the start of third period. It distracted all eleven heroes, who began trickling away. It was obvious at that point that the villains were gone.

In the hysteria that was the rest of the now-shortened school day, only one person noticed that Karkat Vantas was conspicuously not present. Sollux Captor spent the rest of the day looking for his new sort-of-friend, and when Karkat never reappeared, he started to worry.

* * *

**A/N: Yay, superhero swarm time. I know the pace of this bit was a little rushed, I'm sorry. I decided to update earlier than expected, because I'm establishing a schedule for this stuff. I intend for this fic to update on Tuesdays and Fridays, regardless of how much I've actually written. It'll be easier that way, and make for more regular updates-something I haven't been able to promise on my previous fics. **

**I'm going to say some stuff in this note about my supervillain interpretations of the kids, since I don't like info-dumps in the text. John is barely a villain. He doesn't actually officially steal stuff or hurt people unless his pranks go awry, it's more that he takes obscene amounts of pleasure in rigging traps and snares for innocent passersby. He once invaded a bank in full costume just so that he could rewire the ATMS to spit Monopoly money rather than real cash. But despite his dorky purpose, he is a legit villain and he does engage in regular fights with some of the heroes. His sworn nemesis is Lady Luck. Jade is trying to be evil, and so far she's pulled off a couple heists, but she's just not made to be intimidating. She is technically Clockmaster's sidekick, but she sort of does her own thing. I may reference their histories in the main story, but since this background info is pretty much irrelevant I'm choosing to put it here instead. **

**In other notes, thank you soooooooo much to my reviewers and followers, you guys are awesome! As always, I really love getting feedback. It gives me new ideas and inspiration to keep going. :) **


	3. Chapter 3

"Tell me exactly what happened." Jack was sitting on the family couch, polishing his favorite knife. There were bags under his eyes and for once, he looked to be entirely sober. The exacting look in his eyes made Karkat wonder what exactly his father used to do for a living, before settling down in a suburb with his son.

Dutifully, Karkat recited the events of that morning, pausing when Jack demanded him to and trying to recall every little detail. When he finished, a deep frown had set into Jack's face.

"You're going back to school tomorrow," Jack finally declared. "But you're wearing these." He handed Karkat a pair of gloves that he pulled out of nowhere. The gloves were bright red and made of a thin, sturdy material. Karkat looked at them, baffled.

"Why?"

Unfortunately, Jack never had the chance to answer, because just then someone began slamming loudly on the door of their house, demanding to be let in.

"Coming," Jack hollered angrily. He thundered into the foyer and opened the door, Karkat trailing behind him, to see a tall, bony teenager slouching in the doorway.

"Sollux?" Karkat blurted out loudly before he could stop himself.

"You know this guy?" Jack asked his son. Karkat grunted.

"Why the everloving nookscraping fuck are you here? And how the fuck did you get my address?" the short boy demanded, glaring at the unexpected visitor.

"Nookthcraping, that'th a new one. I've never heard that one before. I hacked the thchool regithtry and found your houthe number. Ath for why I'm here, did you theriouthly think you could jutht leave thchool early without anybody notithing?"

"It seemed to work pretty fucking well," Karkat shot back.

"You were outthide when Midnight Thtar attacked. I wanted to make thure you were okay," Sollux explained. "And when I didn't thee you in clath again I thort of…got worried." Karkat stared at Sollux in disbelief.

"What the fuck. That is the most dumbfuckingly grubfistedly idiotic thing I have ever heard. Don't pollute my ears with that bullshit again, you're fucking making fun of me like the assholes on the bus. Now get lost." Karkat responded to Sollux's statement in the only way he knew how: insults. But Sollux didn't leave.

"Jethuth, KK, where did that come from?"

"KK? No. You are not allowed to fucking give me a fucking nickname. Stop."

"You two should take this up at school tomorrow," Jack interceded, stepping between the two teenagers. "Go argue somewhere that is not within the vicinity of my hearing." Karkat slammed the door in Sollux's face, or at least he tried to, but Sollux caught it before he could. He was faster than he looked.

"Can I jutht come in for a moment? KK, I brought your thchool thtuff. You left your thingth in the clathroom, and John nearly had the opportunity to rig your binder with thome kind of prank trap." Sollux let himself into the house.

"What the fuck do you want from me?"

"I just think that you're leth of an athhole than motht of the other people I know at thchool," Sollux answered, bemused.

"Are you…are you _hitting_ on me?" Karkat demanded loudly, startling Sollux.

"Ith that theriouthly the firtht plathe your mind goeth? Jeeth." Sollux made his way into the kitchen, dumping Karkat's school stuff on the table. "I jutht would like to be friendth with you, okay? Ith that a novel conthept to you?" Karkat flipped Sollux off from the other end of the room, but Sollux ignored him.

There was an awkward silence, which ended only when Sollux left to return to his house. Karkat glared at Jack and stormed up to his room, shutting the door behind him and spending the afternoon reading comic books until he fell asleep, face down in an old issue of Batman.

When Karkat woke up the next morning, it was with significantly less flair than the morning previous. The festering pit of assholes was waiting, and it would not be satisfied without Karkat there to complete the state-mandated menagerie of idiots and assholes.

The bus ride was the same as yesterday's except for the lack of bullying douchebags. A seat near the back of the bus was empty, and Karkat jammed himself up against the window, ignoring John's attempts to take his attention.

"Hey, um…can I sit here?" someone asked, jolting Karkat from his dazed morning state. He looked up to see a nervously smiling girl with green eyes and an anime t-shirt holding her backpack and looking at the empty spot next to Karkat.

He grunted in response and moved his backpack from the seat to the floor in front of him. There was a chorus of giggles from nearby, and at least one squee. Karkat went back to staring out the window.

"What's your name?" asked the girl.

"Karkat."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Nepeta," she replied. Karkat grunted again and returned his attention to the passing houses. "Are you new here?" she continued. "My friends and I haven't seen you around before."

"I fucking live right down the street," Karkat shot back grumpily. "You people shouldn't make stupid fucking assumptions." He glared at Nepeta for a moment, red eyes bright, before turning away for a third time.

"Ooh, your eyes are so pretty! They're like rubies," Nepeta cooed. Karkat groaned. This chick wasn't going to leave him alone, was she?

"Look, I am not a fucking morning person. I will say this once and once only: leave me the fuck alone."

"But—"

"If you feel the need to chatter in my face, please do so _later_." Karkat didn't realize until after he'd spoken that 'later' was an objective term. Nepeta frowned and was quiet for a few moments, but after waiting for only five minutes she resumed chattering brightly in Karkat's direction. It would have been endearing if it wasn't so fucking _annoying._

By the first minute of one-sided chatter, Karkat was almost certain that Nepeta had a crush on him. By the second minute, he was agonizingly embarrassed for her, because the level of pathetic she radiated was simply painful. By the third minute, Karkat was ready to throw his unwitting admirer out the window of the school bus.

"P_lease_ just _shut the fuck up_!" Karkat snapped eventually. Nepeta looked hurt, and he prepared to apologize, but then realized that an apology would just open the floodgates once again. He edged closer to the window.

Finally, the bus reached the school. Karkat groaned and began making his way to Physics once again, but he found his path blocked by a sudden, massive shadow.

"Get the fuck out of my way," Karkat grumbled.

"I wish to know why my cousin has taken such interest in you," rumbled the tall, sweaty boy, whom Karkat vaguely recognized from his homeroom class.

"Who the fuck is your cousin and how would I know?"

"Nepeta. She is very dear to me and I wish to know why you are worthy of her affections."

"I have no fucking clue," Karkat snapped, "now get out of my way before we're both late." He pushed past the tall boy, who began sweating furiously, and tried to make it to class without interacting with any other idiots. John tried to stop him on the way into the Physics classroom, offering a can of what he claimed were roasted nuts, but Karkat wasn't going to fall for the prankster's bullshit. Not today.

Karkat returned to his seat in the back of the Physics classroom and began fiddling with the red gloves his father had given him to wear. There was no fucking point, was there? Everyone was messing with him. _Everyone_.

"Hi KK." And now Sollux was back. Wonderful.

"Hello." That voice was new. Karkat turned to see Sollux's friend Aradia trailing behind. She was smiling vaguely, and it was a little bit unsettling.

"KK, thith ith my girlfriend Aradia. AA, thith ith Karkat."

"Wait—girlfriend? You have a fucking girlfriend?" Karkat blurted out.

"Yup."

"Let me get this straight: you have a girlfriend."

"Yeth."

"_You._ _You_ have a girlfriend. _You._"

"You don't have to thound tho thurprithed." Aradia laughed.

"It's nice to meet you," she bubbled, grinning. "Sollux told me about you last night, he said you were grumpy. Seems he was right!"

"Oh my fucking god, I think that rhymed." Karkat bashed his head against his desk.

"Jealouth?" Sollux asked sarcastically.

"God, no."

"Well, I heard thomething very interethting about you and a thertain young lady named Nepeta Leijon," Sollux declared, grinning toothily. "Theemth you're doing pretty well for yourthelf when it cometh to the ladieth. You're a real charmer."

"Oh my god. Oh my fucking god, _no._ She just sat down on the bus next to me and proceeded to chatter my ears off," Karkat groaned, "there is absolutely no romance involved whatso-fucking-ever."

"Don't tell me you're not a ladykiller, KK. You are the lord of the ladykillerth, you are their valiant leader helping them thally forth amongtht legionth of their thcreaming fanth." Karkat did not respond, he only bashed his head against his desk once again. Aradia giggled.

The physics teacher called the class to order, and Aradia sat down next to Sollux in Karkat's row. Mr. Fenton opened his laptop to call roll, and confetti exploded all over his face. The class erupted into laughter, with John receiving several high-fives.

"Mr. Egbert, go to the support room," Mr. Fenton commanded, filling out a paper and handing it to John, who held it up to the class's cheers. "And Mr. Strider, please remove your sunglasses."

"No can do, Fenton. The bro code dictates."

"Would you like to join John in the support room?" Mr. Fenton threatened.

"Fuck yeah; John's the life of the party. I'd follow that sweet ass anywhere." The class cracked up as Dave simply sat there, his poker face not budging.

"I AM NOT A HOMOSEXUAL!" John shouted from somewhere outside the portable, his voice ringing through the walls and into the classroom. Even Sollux laughed this time.

"You better not be," Vriska threatened. Mr. Fenton grit his teeth.

"Now, as I was saying, we'll be doing our first lab today. You'll be separating into groups of four—" All across the classroom, students began eyeing their friends and planning. "—which I will assign." There was a collective groan. "Group One: Vriska Serket, Dave Strider, Katie Banks, Feferi Peixes." Karkat watched as Vriska casually tripped Katie, who fell on her face into the table. He was glad he wasn't in that group. "Group Two: Sara Cleary, Aradia Megido, Sollux Captor, and Karkat Vantas." As the teacher continued, Karkat assembled his group around his lab table. Sollux and Aradia were already present, but Sara was on the other end of the room. Karkat groaned as he watched the clumsy blonde try to navigate past Vriska safely.

"Good," Karkat declared once everyone was there. "We don't have any assholes. I will be our group's leader and I will guide us to glorious victory—"

"Shut up, the teacher's giving instructions," Sara interrupted. Karkat growled at her.

"This lab is just a basic introduction to laboratory etiquette, but we will be using glass, so be careful not to break anything." Mr. Fenton rambled on and on about lab safety, handing back the results of yesterday's safety quiz and frowning at Dave, who had filled in every blank on the test with the words 'smuppet' and 'anime' and then drawn shitty cartoons in the margins.

The group sent Sollux and Karkat to fetch the materials: three glass test tubes, a test tube holder, and some food coloring.

Karkat set down the test tubes on the table as Sollux filled a cup with water.

"What the fuck are we even supposed to be doing with this shit?" Karkat's question was met by shrugs in all directions. Karkat began reading through the lab paper as Sara filled test tubes with water.

"Gah!" Dave Strider had approached from behind and pushed Sara over, causing her to trip and knock down the test tubes. They fell out of their holder with a tinkle, and one of them shattered on the table.

"Oops," Dave deadpanned as he walked away. Just then, Karkat felt a twinge of pain. He looked down to see a small cut on his wrist, just above the end of his glove.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," he muttered, wrapping his left hand around the small injury. His other group members didn't notice, as they were too busy cleaning up the broken glass. Karkat removed his hand from the cut a few moments later as he felt warm, sticky blood oozing through the thin fabric of his glove, which was now marked with a dark spot where the blood had soaked in.

Karkat peeled off the glove, trying not to faint at the sight of his own (oh god there was so much, it was so red, why was it so _red_) blood. (alert alert alert, you can't let anyone see, oh god it hurts and they might see your blood)…

He grabbed a paper towel from the sink station in the back of the classroom, pressing it against the fairly small wound. But as soon as Karkat's bare finger touched his blood, he felt a strange sensation run down the back of his neck.

It was sort of like burning and sort of like ice. He didn't know how to explain it, he just knew that it sort of almost hurt but not really and it was weird and OH GOD THE WOUND WAS BLEEDING MORE FUCK FUCK ABORT ABORT ABORT

Karkat practically bolted into the small bathroom adjoining the portable. He slammed the door behind him, locking himself into the single stall. He stared at himself in the shitty school mirror, watching his own scarlet eyes burn through him, and he felt his heart rate rising. He was shaking slightly, the blood vessels in his sclera swelling and making him look like a madman.

OH FUCK THE TOP OF HIS HEAD FELT LIKE IT WAS ABOUT TO CRACK OPEN Karkat clutched his skull tightly, trying to hold it together. His fevered brain felt like it was about to explode OH GOD OH GOD there was still blood on his arm HE WAS TOUCHING THE BLOOD he ripped off the other remaining glove and started shaking madly, out of his own control. Something was wrong with him, something was seriously wrong.

* * *

_Most people who manifest superhuman abilities do not manifest all of them at once. Powers are like a mutation that continues to mutate after it has already begun: you may start out with only the power to levitate and soon find yourself with telekinesis strong enough to lift a semi. Under normal circumstances the first powers will begin to appear at the age of four or five years old, and they will generally be immediately obvious. _

_The development of latent abilities is facilitated by the presence of other human beings. A person who spends much of their childhood in contact with lots of friends or companions will develop his or her powers much sooner than a child who was raised mostly alone, but the child who was raised alone will develop powers at a faster rate. _

_A perfect example of the former is the superhero Pisces. Even as a very young child she was extremely social, and her first physical mutation developed at the age of four when she was found in the bathtub sitting underwater, fuchsia gills fluttering. Pisces' other powers, however, did not manifest until much later, and the most notable part of her transformation, the candy-corn horns that many of Meteor City's heroes sport, did not appear until her thirteenth birthday. It is speculated that the heroine still has abilities yet to be discovered. _

_Heroes like Aquathing who are either shunned by others or antisocial develop their powers later in life in shorter time. Aquathing did not manifest superhuman powers until he was ten years old, but developed the rest of his known powers within four months of doing so. _

_It is speculated that the older a hero is when his or her powers appear, the shorter the amount of time will be before they have gained all their initial abilities. _

* * *

"KK? KK? Karkat, what the fuck are you doing in there?" Sollux slammed his fist into the door, and Karkat turned towards it, twitching.

"Go away!" he shouted, his voice cracking.

"Karkat, are you okay?"

"Go away…go away…go the fuck away…" Karkat's head felt like it was splitting in two and OH GOD THERE WAS STILL BLOOD ON HIS ARM OH GOD OH GOD that was it he wouldn't hyperventilate he would just be calm OH GOD IT'S DRIPPING ONTO HIS LEG be calm, be calm, don't freak the fuck out FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

"Karkat, open thith door right now!" Sollux shouted.

SOMEONE WAS BASHING IN HIS SKULL WITH A HAMMER oh god oh god oh god don't freak out, it's okay, don't freak the fuck out IT HURTS AND THERE WAS STILL BLOOD ON HIS ARM

Karkat clutched his face in his hands, but his nails felt like claws and they ripped into his skin and OH GOD THERE WAS BLOOD ON HIS FACE BLOOD EVERYWHERE his fingernails were yellow and sharp and pointed

SOMETHING WAS TRYING TO BUST OUT OF HIS SKULL

"Karkat! KK, if you don't open thith door right now I will butht it open mythelf!"

"Karkat, please," Aradia pleaded. "We can hear you screaming." He wasn't screaming no he wasn't was he screaming? He was definitely not screaming, everything was calm as fuck.

FUCK.

_CRUNCH_. Sollux kicked through the door, his strength belying his skin-and-bones appearance, to skid to a halt very quickly and very suddenly, Aradia peering over his shoulder along with about half the class. Karkat scuttled to the side and slammed himself up against the wall of the stall. They couldn't see him like this, no no no no no no no fucking no…

"I'm coming in," Sollux announced. He pulled away from Aradia and propped up the remnants of the bathroom door to allow them privacy. He sat down on the floor of the bathroom and just looked at Karkat.

"Get the fuck out," Karkat gasped.

"KK? KK, you should look in the mirror," Sollux suggested, making a visible effort to keep his face still.

Karkat turned slowly to face the shitty angled bathroom mirror, and for a moment he didn't recognize his reflection.

In the mirror, he had sharp teeth and claws for fingernails. His eyes, which had previously been a dark, glimmering red, were now radiant scarlet. His muddy brown hair had turned black, and on his head two small, rounded horns peeked out from behind his locks. The blood on his wrist had vanished completely.

He looked like a monster.

He looked like the same kind of being that the superheroes were; all of them.

"Oh my fucking god."

"Yeah, that'th a pretty accurate thummary of the thituation," Sollux said drily.

"What _am_ I?" Karkat wondered aloud, the red of his own irises transfixing him. "What the fuck—how did that happen and how the fuck did any of it make any sense at all?" He continued staring in the mirror, unable to look away from whatever it was that he'd become. He reached up and touched one of the horns growing out of his hair, shuddering when he discovered that the skin around it was very sensitive.

"About that…" Sollux stepped up behind Karkat so that the latter could see him in the mirror as well. "You need to change back. You can't leave thith room looking like that."

"Well, how the fuck am I supposed to change back?" Karkat snapped irascibly. "I don't suppose you have any idea? Oh, no, that's right, you fucking don't, because you're not a fucking superhero! You're just a nerd with really weird taste in eyewear!"

"Harsh," Sollux retorted. Then, to Karkat's shock, he took off his sunglasses and _changed._ Four sharp horns sprouted from his skull, and Sollux's already-unusual yellow eyes became filled in entirely with color: one red and one blue.

"What—but—you're—oh my fucking _god…_"

"You're doing the goldfish, KK," declared Psionic—Sollux. Sollux was Psionic. Sollux was one of Karkat's favorite real-life heroes. Sollux had fucking _superpowers._

"This does not compute. This does not compute at _all._"

"Shut up and let me thee thothe gloveth," Sollux demanded, holding out a hand (which now had yellow fingernails, just like Karkat's). Karkat wordlessly passed them to Sollux, who slid them onto his own hands, ignoring the small amount of blood.

Almost as soon as the gloves were on his hands, Sollux changed form, his horns shrinking into nothingness and his hair returning to its original color.

"Thought tho. Thethe are power-blockerth…who gave them to you?"

"Jack. My dad," Karkat amended when Sollux looked momentarily confused.

"That meanth he probably knew. KK, when you get home you are going to athk your dad ecthactly what he knowth, becauthe he clearly knowth thomething. And then you're going two tectht me about it." Sollux scrawled a phone number on the back of Karkat's hand, then removed the gloves. "Put thethe back on and you'll be fine." Sollux had returned to his hero form, but he quickly morphed back. "Tomorrow I'm giving you hero lethonth. You're lucky; you get to learn from the cooletht hero there ith."

"Right…" Karkat was still too stunned to curse. He slid the scarlet gloves over his hands, watching his reflection in the mirror change once again. He felt strangely empty, like he'd been drained of some kind of pressure. He stood straighter somehow.

"Your clath awaitth." Sollux lifted the broken door and held his arm out like he was escorting Karkat out of the bathroom.

He completely failed to notice that the wound which triggered it all had completely vanished, with not even a spot of blood left as a reminder.

* * *

**A/N: And so it begins. Sorry about the OC, all of the other canon characters in Karkat's first mod were occupied elsewhere and putting Eridan in that role just wouldn't work out. I tried and stupidity ensued. **

**Hey, check it out, Karkat's finally flipped! As of now I only have one more chapter of this written in advance but I should get lots done over the weekend, so it looks like I'm actually going to be consistent for once! This is an accomplishment! Ironically, this was supposed to be a one-shot focusing on Karkat and his powers, but then it took eighteen pages to get to the first awakening thereof and I kind of gave up on the whole 'one-shot' thing. **

**Thanks so much for the good reviews, I really appreciate the feedback. And I'm working on adding more descriptions to things because I couldn't find a good way to talk about costumes, setting, etc. during last update's big fight scene. When I go back and edit during the first intermission I'll do my best to improve that. If there's something you think I could do better on, don't hesitate to tell me-it helps me improve as a writer in general! :) I promise I won't take it personally. **


	4. Chapter 4

The class had returned to regular activity, but Mr. Fenton was waiting outside the bathroom door for Karkat to return.

"Are you alright?" the teacher asked, looking concerned.

"I'm fucking fine."

"Language, Mr. Vantas. Now, I don't know what happened in there, but I need to send you down to the counselor's office. I don't think you're mentally ready to continue class at the moment." Karkat grunted, and Mr. Fenton handed him a small slip of pink paper. "You know where the office is, right? Tell the secretary you've been sent to speak with Mrs. Hamilton."

Wordlessly, Karkat snatched the slip from his teacher's hand and made his way to the front office of the high school. A crew was working between the portables and the building to repair the damage done by yesterday's villain attack.

The school secretary barely turned away from her telephone to see Karkat's note. She wordlessly pointed at a door bearing several college posters in the back of the office, and Karkat nervously pushed open the door.

"Good afternoon, Mr…"

"Karkat. Karkat Vantas," Karkat answered. "I, uh…I was sent down here by Mr. Fenton?"

"Ah, yes, he called about you! Now, sit yourself down and take a look at my painting! Do you see the way the paint overlaps?"

"This is one of those dumb-as-fuck tests where you ask me what I see in the paint blob, isn't it? Well, do you know what I see? I see a goddamned grubfucking paint glob. Don't try to psychoanalyze me." Mrs. Hamilton laughed, to Karkat's chagrin.

"No, no, no, I just wanted to show you the picture! Please watch your language, though, we _are_ in a school and that sort of thing just isn't acceptable."

The entire rest of Karkat's meeting with Mrs. Hamilton continued along that exact vein. She asked Karkat about his home life, his father, and whether or not he had nightmares frequently. He couldn't wait to get the fuck out.

The remainder of Karkat's day passed in monotony and when he finally made it home he slumped into the bright red beanbag chair in front of the TV without even stopping to drop his backpack.

"Rough day?" Jack mumbled from where he was collapsed on the couch behind Karkat.

"You have no fucking clue."

Karkat opened his mouth to start telling his father about the incident in Physics, but then he hesitated. It was obvious that Jack knew about Karkat's powers—why else would he have given Karkat the power-blocking gloves?—but the way Jack had kept the truth away burned at Karkat's insides and pissed him off even more than John's exploding cupcake trick at lunch that afternoon. But still…

"Hey. Dad." The accusatory tone of Karkat's voice combined with his use of the word Dad rather than simply Jack made Karkat's father sit up on the couch and meet his son's angry scarlet gaze as Karkat stood up. "Is there something you'd like to tell me?" Karkat ripped off the red gloves and felt himself change into the hero form, as he'd begun to think of it. This time, the change was easy and painless—just weird.

Jack's gaze focused suddenly, and he lurched to his feet.

"I think it's about time you learned about your brother," he finally said, after meeting Karkat's eyes for a long, long moment.

Jack ushered Karkat to the wooden table in the kitchen and took a seat, gesturing for Karkat to do so as well. He drummed his fingers on the old, scratched finish slowly.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Karkat suddenly demanded. "What brother?"

"See, and that's where I fucked up. Before I met your mum, God bless her soul, before she brought me to my senses…there was another dame, name o' Regina Nera. She was…well, we met through my old occupation. She was a rival, workin' for an enemy of my boss, and we were the best of enemies. Young hate burns bright, y'know? But one night, I was drunk out of my mind and she was thinkin' God knows what, and we had sex. One o' the best nights a' my life, but I digress. And she got herself preggers, and I got saddled with the kid. We named him Kankri, after my granddad."

"Wait, what? You knew Bella Regina? As in, _the_ Bella Regina? The self-titled Queen of Crime, the one who vanished?" Karkat leaned forward in his seat out of shock, his nails (claws) digging into the table. Oops. He'd forgotten he was still in hero form.

"Shaddup and listen. So like I said, I raised Kankri. Regina didn't want him. And soon after he started school, 'round his ninth birthday, shit started…happenin'. And it kept happenin'. It was _weird_ shit, he started seein' things, some kind a'…other world bullshit. And I believed him." Jack got up slowly from the table, fetched himself a beer from the refrigerator, opened it, and took a long swig. "Once he got to fifth grade, the powers started showin' up. We first found out about it at the playground after school. Kid sassed the school bully, somethin' about finding his body odor 'triggering,' and he got himself a knuckle sandwich to the nose. There was blood everywhere—but just as I got there, ready to take him to the hospital, somethin' _freaky_ happened. The blood…it just kind of came back up. It went right back into his body." Jack took another draught of his beer.

"He had powers?"

"Obviously. And they kept gettin' stronger, and I don't think even he knew all a' what he could do." Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair, chugging the rest of his drink before slumping forward, the legs of the chair slamming into the tile.

"And…something happened. What the fuck happened, Jack?" Karkat demanded loudly.

"Well…after Regina had the kid, she ditched the both of us. Disappeared for a while, if ya' will. I heard nothin' from her again 'till Kankri's senior year in high school. He was about to graduate, gonna go to school at Meteor College and do some heroism on the side, when the villain Number Eight came outta nowhere. She was a newbie, a wild card. Started raisin' havoc in the city center, and a' course Kankri wanted to go challenge her. He had a bunch of hero friends who wanted to go with him, and I knew a few of them out of costume, too. And I wouldn't let him fight Eight, and then it happened. One by one, the other heroes went to challenge Number Eight, and one by one, they got killed. All of 'em, even the strongest. And finally it was just Kankri left, and Eight got daring. She knew there was only one hero still alive and she started to track him down."

Jack coughed, and excused himself to fetch yet another beer.

"She went way farther than any supervillain would, could, or should have done. And she managed to track Kankri back to our apartment in one of those old skyrises. And around that same time, I received a very strange letter with no return address. It demanded that I bring Kankri to the Circle Park, leave him there, and move as far away as I could." Jack sighed, pausing as though he was searching for words. "It was signed, Bella Regina."

"You mean…?"

"I ignored the letter, thought it was some kind a' trick. And the next week, she came. I knew her face as soon as I saw it, despite the mask she wore and her new clothing. It was Regina Nera, _she_ was Number Eight, and for whatever strange reason, she wanted Kankri dead." Jack turned his face away, breaking eye contact with Karkat. He stared down at the floor like it was moving beneath his feet. "Before I knew…before I could react…she attacked. Shot Kankri through the heart with a pure white bullet, and…and the blood didn't go back in. She nearly took my eye out with a sharpened cigarette holder, said it was a warning. Then she left. She just…left. It was like she teleported away, and for all I know that might have been exactly what she did."

"So what happened next?" Karkat asked.

"Nothing. I went back to my job, with a little more caution. No one ever saw Regina Nera in the open again, she vanished into the shadows of her organization. Started creatin' a reputation for herself. Things were normal for a while, if normal could ever be used to describe my…occupation. Then came the fight, and my life was saved by the most wonderful woman I've ever known.

"That'd be your mum," Jack added as though Karkat wouldn't have known. "She persuaded me to leave my erstwhile job and settle down near the edge of the city, find a good, honest occupation, and that's what I did. A few years later, we had you, and I knew from the moment I saw those eyes that more likely than not, you'd be just like your brother. Around the same time, they published a study on superhumans sayin' powers develop earlier when the kid's near other kids, so I figured by homeschoolin' you I could keep you safe. We got this far, and nothin', so I assumed—wrongly—that you didn't have the powers. I sent you to school, and you know what happened next."

Karkat sat still, slowly absorbing the new information. He'd heard of the things his father was telling him about, of course. The Hero Massacre of Meteor City was infamous; what kind of villain was strong enough to brutally murder twelve different superbeings in less than four months? It was terrifying to think about. And Number Eight was a legend, the role model for ninety percent of the idiots who tried to become supervillains these days. But to hear that his father, Jack Vantas the bumbling drunk, had been directly involved with it, been the father of one of the heroes—that was unbelievable.

"He looked just like you," Jack said suddenly, breaking the silence to meet Karkat's gaze. "Eyes like rubies, that thick brown hair, I swear you're even the same height as he was when he was your age. He had a bright red sweater that one of his other hero friends gave him, and he wore it all the time. He would pull his pants up nearly to his armpits and it annoyed poor Porrim so much that she knitted the sweater for him to avoid looking at them." Jack sighed, turning his eyes towards empty space. "He was buried wearing it."

There was a long, heavy silence. The air between Karkat and his father felt like a steel wire, tense and taut, broken only by Jack's third walk to the refrigerator as he retrieved another beer.

Then, the doorbell rang. The noise pierced through the aura of the previous conversation like a knife through butter, and Karkat jumped from his seat.

"I'll get the door."

"You've still got your horns out. Go upstairs, _I'll_ get the door."

"Fuck you," replied Karkat, grabbing his red gloves from where he'd left them and throwing them on, wriggling his fingers as the material slid onto his skin. He ran into the hallway, already half-knowing exactly who was standing at the front door.

Sure enough, Sollux Captor was waiting. He carried a backpack from which several colorful wires dangled, and his 3D glasses were absent, showing his yellow irises. For the record, Karkat found them nearly as creepy as his own scarlet eyes.

"You have failed your tetht, KK. You have failed it immenthely."

"The fuck are you talking about?" Karkat demanded.

"You forgot to text me. I wath waiting."

"What, do you have nothing better to do than wait around for a shitstain like me to actually pay attention to your pathetic life?"

"No, I wath jutht a little worried about you. Calm your titth."

"I don't fucking have tits, you writhing shitsmoking asshole. Get the fuck out. And by that I mean stay here or else."

"I will choothe to ignore that thtatement. And you _did_ flip your thit in the bathroom earlier, you know," Sollux answered sarcastically. "Oh—and for your information, I wath texting AA, becauthe I _do_ have better thingth to do than wait around for you."

"Just get the fuck in the house," Karkat groaned. Sollux made his way to the living room and dumped his technology-filled backpack on the couch. He pulled out a white box and a shitton of wires, connecting them to the television in mysterious ways.

"And who is this?" Jack asked, wandering into the room.

"This is Sollux, dad, you met him yesterday. He came by after school, remember?"

"And why the fuck is he here?"

"Long story short?" Karkat asked angrily, but then Sollux interrupted.

"I thaw him go troll and I'm here to be hith unofficial tutor in the wayth of the thuperhuman. Get uthed to it, thith ith only lethon one," the bony kid lisped. "I am the Jedi Mathter and KK ith my padawan. I will train him in the wayth of the Forthe." Jack grunted.

"Which one are you?"

"Pthionic. Don't tell."

"Right. I'll leave you two to whatever it is you're gonna do. Don't die," Jack instructed before sauntering back into the foyer and upstairs to his room. That was…disappointingly easy.

Meanwhile, Sollux had finished messing with the television and was now adjusting settings with a white remote control.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Karkat demanded.

"Hero form. Now." Karkat slowly took off his red gloves, feeling the sensation of transformation that accompanied the action. "Catch."

"Wha—" Karkat snatched the controller out of the air, instincts kicking in and making him move faster than he ever thought possible.

"Your ath goeth here," Sollux lisped, pointing to a spot on the beanbag next to where he'd sat down. "Mario Kart contetht. You're Printheth Peach and the rathe thtartth in three… two… one… GO!" The TV made a noise and the game began.

"You're so screwed. I am the fucking _boss_ of video games. The games are my bitches," Karkat grunted, twisting the Wii remote sharply as the car rounded a corner.

"Ehehehehe. Jutht wait. Thith one ith a mod. Let'th thee if you thay the thame onthe the carth are going at twithe their programmed top thpeed," Sollux responded, grinning wickedly. He had shifted into his hero form as well, and his twin horns were crackling with red and blue psionic energy.

"Why the fuck do I have to be Princess Peach? Why can't I be Mario? Or Bowser? Or goddamnit, even fucking Luigi?" Karkat demanded angrily.

"Player One chootheth characterth," cackled Sollux as he steered Bowser around a sharp bend in the course. "It could be worthe."

"_How?_"

"You could be Toadette," Sollux shot back, laughing loudly as Karkat in his rage failed to notice a banana peel and fell off the course.

"Fuck you."

"You wish you could."

"You have stupid down to a science. It is to the point where it is obvious that I am better and smarter than you in every way, forever, but you don't understand—you're too stupid." Karkat made a turn to leap his car over a ramp, elbowing Sollux's neck in the motion. "Whoops." Sollux pushed back, nearly knocking Karkat off the beanbag.

"Oopth."

"You suck. You seriously suck. How do you get out of your bed in the morning knowing you're the worst thing a universe was ever responsible for?"

"Tho now _I'm_ the wortht thing. And here I wath thinking we were getting a pretty nithe friendship thing going," Sollux retorted. He pressed a complicated series of buttons on his controller, and suddenly both cars sped up, along with the game.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

"Game mod. Don't thay I didn't warn you."

"Is this seriously how you spend your free time?"

"Among other thingth, like my thuperhero career—ever conthidered that ath thomething? Oh, and I even have time for a girlfriend on the thide."

"I don't understand how you of all people have a girlfriend. In fact, I don't understand how any female has ever looked at you without at once turning skyward and erupting like a vomit volcano. Got an answer?" Karkat hit a series of ramps in the game and shot across half the racecourse, speeding in front of Sollux and dropping all three of his banana peels. Sollux's car skidded off the course and respawned once Karkat had stolen a lead.

"We have already ethtablished how much I thuck—but I don't thee you winning the game."

"Fuck you, I am clearly far in front of you, look. You just fucking fell off the race course! You can see on the little map thing, see how my icon is closer to the finish than yours is? I am winning the race."

"Becauthe I'm about to lap you. I'm on my thecond loop and _you're_ thtill on your firtht."

"FUUUUUUCK!" Karkat shouted as Sollux's car sped ahead of his once again.

"Yeth. Thecond lap finished." Karkat growled and tipped his controller as far forward as it could go, moving his car along at what in the real world would be a breakneck pace.

"I'm _going_ to beat you."

"In your dreamth."

"Fuck you. Fuck you and everyone you've ever known."

"Including you? Are you coming on to me, KK?" Sollux wiggled his eyebrows, not even turning away from the game for a moment. Karkat nearly choked on his exclamation of rage.

"Go drown in a bucket. You can fill it with your own tears."

"Harsh." The game dinged as Sollux's car literally flew over the finish line. Karkat shouted in anger and threw his controller into the ground.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

"Round two thtartth in ten thecondth. The ratheth are ten lapth each ath of now. If you can win, then you get to choothe your character, and I'll be Printheth Peach, got it?" Sollux grinned evilly, waiting for Karkat to take the bait.

"Fine. I will play this game, I will win, and I will shock you out of your pathetic mismatched shoes and socks," Karkat growled. "You'll see."

"Right. Oh—and full thpeed thtartth from the beginning thith time."

Karkat's gameplay was terrifying and hilarious to watch. He jumped up and down, leaning and elbowing Sollux like it would somehow help him pull ahead. His hair was in disarray, he'd taken off his Batman hoodie to throw it aside, and he gripped the controller so tightly that it left indents in his skin.

After the third race, Sollux got up and grabbed the blankets and pillows from the couch to make a massive pile, which Karkat promptly took over. There was much shouting involved, and Karkat wound up receiving a sharp elbow to the gut, knocking him to the side and causing him to become tangled in an old Disney Princess blanket he thought he'd gotten rid of years ago.

After the fourth race, Jack made a bowl of popcorn and sat down on the cushionless couch to watch the heroes play their video game. He kept throwing the unpopped kernels at the two boys like an immature elementary-schooler, and he smelled strongly of alcohol.

After the fifth race, the speed of the cars had increased so much that even Sollux fell off the course repeatedly before admitting that he needed to slow it down. Karkat cackled triumphantly until Sollux sent a red shell his way and his laughter turned to rage.

"Dude, you need to chill out," Sollux declared during one race as he and Karkat sped along a rainbow track through outer space (seriously, were these game designers on acid?). Karkat had lost count of how many rounds they'd played, and he still hadn't won a single one.

"I…will…fucking…beat…you…HYA!" Karkat shouted as he dropped a shell directly in front of Sollux, sending him spinning out of control.

"Thure." Sollux hit a ramp, which catapulted him over Karkat's car and into the middle of the track up ahead.

"GWAH!" Karkat threw the controller into the ground. The back casing popped open and two AA batteries fell out.

"KK, have you ever theen the Rage Quit videoth on Youtube? Becauthe frankly, I think you need to." Sollux's car passed the finish line yet again, and he put down his controller. "Let'th take a break."

By then, the sun had set, and the lights in the living room were still turned off. Moonlight streamed through the windows until Karkat flipped a light switch to reveal Jack asleep on the couch, face-down in the popcorn bowl and snoring uproariously.

"Holy shit. Sollux, it's eleven o'clock at night. Don't you have to go home or do hero shit or something?"

"Hero thit can wait, thith thity hath way too many of uth anywayth. And my dad doethn't give a thit whether I'm home or not ath long ath I get my ath to thchool every morning."

"That…actually sounds like it fucking sucks."

"Eh, it'th fine. My dad'th working on hith book at the moment, tho he'th pretty abthorbed. It'th not like he doethn't care about me," Sollux said nonchalantly. "Now come on. We have to do thome more invethtigation, we've played enough Mario Kart for now. The more important part ith figuring out what your abilitieth are. You already have your hero form, and thinthe you flipped your thit I'm athuming today wath your firtht manifethtation of any powerth at all. That'th really fatht, and the fact that you have your hero form meanth you probably have motht of your bathic powerth ath well, but you probably don't know what they are, correct?"

"Sollux. Listen. It's eleven o'clock at night on a school night. I need some sleep or I will die of exhaustion, having suffered through waking up at an obscene hour in the morning for more consecutive days than I ever have in my entire fucking life." Sollux considered this for a moment, before grinning wickedly.

"Heroeth have more enduranthe than normal humanth. You'll thurvive." Sollux began wandering through Karkat's house, leaving his game system plugged into the TV and still making noise.

"How the fuck do you know I'd have better endurance? You don't know anything about me other than the fact that I have the mutant freak ability to suddenly and randomly look like a lame-ass superhero. And I don't even have cool horns. Look at these horns, they are pathetic and shameful." To illustrate his point, Karkat gestured irately up towards his dull, rounded horns.

"Thut up. You look like a hero, and if you don't have other powerth then the univerthe thcrewed you becauthe never before have I heard of thomeone who looked like that and didn't have abilitieth to match."

"Sollux, I have to do my fucking lame-ass homework because flipping my shit in the middle of class and being distracted the rest of the day apparently doesn't excuse me from the drudgery of repeated, mind-numbing physics algebra that I don't understand at all. You have already occupied about seven hours of my time. Go home." Karkat herded Sollux back to the door, pushed him out, and slammed his back against the door.

"I'm coming back tomorrow!" Sollux shouted, his voice muffled by the insulation. Karkat slumped down against the door and sighed. He could already feel his eyelids drooping, and he didn't look forward to finishing the fifty-something math problems that Mr. Fenton had assigned in his absence. He didn't know how Sollux managed.

Karkat stared at the paper, pencil in hand, trying to decipher what Fenton wanted him to do. His vision kept blurring and losing focus as he directed every bit of energy he had left towards the assignment. If an object with a mass of eighty kilograms is falling from twenty meters, disregarding air friction and wind…

Karkat slumped forward onto the desk suddenly, eyes drooping shut. His mouth gaped slightly open, and the not-yet-dried ink of his pen smudged on his cheek. He was well and soundly asleep.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is longer than usual because if I ended it where I wish I could have, it would've been way too short. In other notes: SNOWMAN. WHY ARE YOU SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE? Because seriously, I am in love with that character right now in all her iterations. She's got a lot more depth than I used to think she did. My English teacher says that in order to understand a character you have to critically read the text and analyze meaning where meaning was never meant to be in the first place. You know what? Screw that. In order to understand a character, do the same thing you do to understand a person. Put yourself in their shoes by writing about them. You'll learn a lot. **

**Friday's update might actually accidentally happen on Saturday, because I have a really busy schedule this week and my teachers won't stop assigning homework. I might have to start updating slower, but for now I'll try to stick with what I've got. As always, thanks for the reviews and follows and favorites! XD**


	5. Chapter 5

_ "Hello." The girl has short, blonde hair and olive-colored eyes that seem strangely familiar. She smiles kindly, extending a hand to help him up. Her skin is warm to the touch and soft against his callused palms, rough from the years he spent in Jack's company, learning to fight with a knife like no other child his age. _

_He doesn't know how he knows this. He knows nothing. _

_"Where am I?"_

_"Silly! This is Memory. It's where we all reside in our dreams and in our sleep. I don't think I've seen you here before." He follows her as she guides him forward into the strange white mist that surrounds them. He doesn't know why he didn't notice it before. _

_There are no more words spoken until they enter the center of the place. He knows it is the center, though their surroundings haven't changed. It's just a feeling of sorts. _

_"I have…I have something I need to tell you," she says, looking him in the eyes. "It's going to come out really strange, though." _

_"What?"_

_"I think…" she pauses, as though to collect herself. She clasps her hands in front of her heart and closes her eyes. "I think I'm in love with you, but none of us remember." For some strange reason, this does not come as a shock. _

_"Maybe we can make new memories," he says, something inspiring him. For a moment, there's a vision of a painting on the wall: the suites of a card deck, and the scarlet heart bold in one corner._

_"You need to find me in the real world. Find all of us in the real world. I think you can make us remember. Memory isn't supposed to be empty." There is a brief quiet. They meet gazes wordlessly as he strives to remember something unnamable._

_She screams, and he jumps back. Blood seeps out of her mouth and her eyes, which are now blown wide and rolling, but the blood isn't red, it's olive. She drops to the ground, and it stains the pristine whiteness. He tries to save her but he cannot move. Her blood and tears mingle on her face as cuts open from nothingness all over her skin and the olive just keeps coming without end. _

_"We're here! You have to help uth!" The face is familiar, the lisp slighter than it should be, but he doesn't know why he knows the voice. "AAAAAAUUUUGH!" The newcomer's face and chest are split open, and yellow joins the green in a sickening mixing of colors. _

_He screams that he'll save them but he still cannot move, he is rooted to the spot by something that holds him back no matter how much he fights it. _

_There are more and they keep coming, and colors add to the rainbow one by one. Teal falls from the sky, neck snapped. Blue weeps blood until he is gone. Orange falls with a hole in his stomach, bones and body smashed. They're everywhere and_

_OH GOD THE BLOOD IS EVERYWHERE_

_in every color of the rainbow it's covering the ground_

_PURPLE HAS A CLUB AND HE BLUDGEONS AND THEN HE IS GONE his dark bruise-colored blood is staining the white, blurring with the blue on the edges_

_OH GOD IT WON'T DISAPPEAR PLEASE MAKE IT GO AWAY GO AWAY GO AWAY_

_"KARKAT!" someone screams. "KARKAT, YOU HAVE TO THAVE UTH!" the first comer isn't gone yet, his yellow blood leaking across the ground as he stares up in agony. _

_"Karkat!"_

_"Karkat!"_

_"Karkat, save us!"_

_"KAAARKAAAAAAAT!"_

* * *

"Karkat!" Karkat jolted awake, his eyes wide and his breathing rough and jagged. He blinked the sleep from his eyes, the visions of blood and death still hovering in front of his vision. Morning light was streaming through his bedroom windows onto his desk, illuminating dust motes floating in the air, as well as the unfinished homework assignment that Karkat hadn't even begun yet.

"Shit, fuck, shit, fuck…" Karkat grabbed the paper and shoved it roughly into his backpack. The clock on his nightstand read 7:33—school had started three minutes ago.

"Karkat, didn't you set your alarm clock?" Jack was standing in the door looking completely crashed. It was a miracle he was even awake, what with the hangover he almost certainly had from the absurd amounts of alcohol he'd imbibed the night before.

"No, because Sollux kept me up until a ridiculous time at night and oh _fuck._" Karkat clutched his head as a massive headache struck home. It felt like someone had stabbed him right through his left eyeball. "Migraine…"

"Go back to sleep. I'll write a note you were sick or somethin' that you can bring in tomorrow." Jack left the room, and Karkat slumped back down on the desk. He tried to fall back asleep, but all he could think about was his strange, terrifying nightmare.

His mind reeled with images that flashed one by one in front of each other, blindingly fast and sickeningly vivid. There was blood everywhere, blood on his hands as he tried to hold their wounds closed—those people, who were they? He swore he'd seen them before, and yet at the same time he knew nothing about them.

Spoken words echoed through his head. _I think I'm in love with you, but none of us remember._ Karkat knew the girl who had told him that; he _knew_ he knew her. It was engrained deep within him that he knew who she was, but at the same time—he didn't even know her name. It was right there, on the tip of his tongue, like a taste that he couldn't quite name, a scent he couldn't quite detect, but he didn't know _why. _

He needed to find the reasons, and he had a vague idea of how and where to start, but Jack was in bed with a nasty hangover and would likely refuse to answer any questions Karkat asked. So he made up his mind to go with the second-best solution.

St. Skaia Cemetery consisted of a sweeping hundred-acre estate, spotted with trees and statues in between the grave sites. A single winding road meandered between knolls and the occasional small pond, connecting a number of smaller footpaths between graves.

Karkat's specific destination was a family plot deep within the cemetery, surrounded by a small copse of trees and adjacent to a small, water lily-adorned pond. He had never been there before, but he knew where the grave was all the same—and now, he had a hunch as to whose laid next to it.

He left the house without telling his father, who wouldn't notice his absence anyways, and began walking, hood up and hands tucked deeply in his pockets. The graveyard was depressingly close to his house, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

The large, cast-iron gates were unlocked as always, and Karkat entered the sanctity and quiet of the cemetery without a single living soul to note his presence.

His feet moved him along robotically down a path he'd looked up on the online map of the place, but his mind was far from Earth.

He could still feel the rainbow blood staining his hands, warm and sticky against his flesh and shining in unnatural, inhuman colors that were somehow still more natural than the hue of Karkat's own blood. Why did the scarlet seem so strange and alien to him now? It was natural—the iron and oxygen in blood react to form a candy-bright hue. It wasn't a crime, the way Karkat's nightmare had made it feel.

_I think I'm in love with you._ And Karkat had told her they could make new memories, to replace whatever they lost, and in that moment he'd meant it with every piece of his soul.

_You have to help us._ And Karkat had tried his hardest to save the boy who was bleeding out yellow on the pristine whiteness, but there was nothing he could do. He was rooted to the spot by a force he didn't control.

_We didn't ask for this._ A new voice rang through Karkat's mind, one that he didn't remember from the dream. It was clear and vivid. _We didn't ask to forget._

"I'll help you remember. I'll help you all remember," he whispered aloud to himself and whoever was in his mind listening. "I don't know why, but I know I have to."

Karkat's feet stopped moving. He had reached his destination. He moved towards the white marble gravestone almost on instinct, barely pausing to read the words written there.

_Marion Penelope Vantas_

_"I will love you beyond the end of the universe."_

The rest of the inscriptions on the stone were covered by a rosebush that bloomed with elaborate scarlet blossoms. Jack had bought that rosebush when Karkat was born—he'd told his son about it once. Marion had always loved roses, and to this day, a gnarled red rosebush grew outside of the Vantas home.

Karkat stood there and simply stared at the gravestone, not daring to look left at the newest grave and the name that he knew had to be written there, but his eyes were drawn towards it.

The stone was simple granite, grey flecked with specks of scarlet. _Kankri James Vantas._

"He was a good boy," said a strange voice. Karkat jumped and whirled, startled.

The newcomer was a tall, slender woman with skin the color of coffee with cream. Elegantly styled black hair cascaded to just above her waist, framing her smooth, oval face, and she was dressed in an elegant black-and-green gown. She must have been at least in her forties, judging by the few streaks of silver that began to form in her hair, but otherwise her appearance was ageless. She was beautiful, in the sort of way that a statue is beautiful: solemn and unmoving. Slanted eyes glinted in Karkat's direction, eyes that were the pale blue color of ice.

"Who are you?"

"No one of consequence," replied the woman, gliding towards Kankri's grave. She rested a gloved hand upon the granite stone, the other reaching into a pocket to retrieve a cigarette in a black-as-night holder. She lit the cigarette, and a plume of lazy grey smoke spiraled into the air. She inhaled deeply.

"I had been hoping for a name."

"You may call me Snowman."

"That is one weird as fuck name," Karkat replied, backing away from the stranger. She smiled at him, exhaling a ring of smoke. "I'm serious, who the fuck are you?"

"As I said, I am no one of consequence. I merely came here to honor the memory of someone I once knew." Snowman pulled from nowhere a pure-white rose, twirling it in her fingers before laying it gently in front of Kankri's grave. "White, the color of innocence. He would've been very set off by that." She smiled. "I secretly think he enjoyed being offended."

"Who _are _you? And how did you know my brother?" Snowman merely took a draw of her cigarette, blowing a smoke ring into the morning air.

"He was…an acquaintance of mine. So you _are_ his brother. I should have figured, the Vantas genes ran strong in both of you." Snowman only smiled once again when Karkat exclaimed verbally from frustration.

"Who are you? Quit being such a cryptic smart-ass and give me a fucking _answer!_"

"My identity is irrelevant to this discussion. I simply knew Kankri when he was a child. Your father used to be a…well, I wouldn't call him a friend of mine," Snowman stated smoothly between draws of her cigarette, "but we certainly knew each other. You come from a very _unique_ family." Snowman moved gracefully from Kankri's graveside to stand with perfect poise behind the gravestone, deeper into the Vantas family plot. "I bear a particular interest in a certain genetic…oddity that appears rather frequently in your family line."

"What genetic oddity?" Snowman laughed coldly.

"Oh, there are a lot. Those eyes, for one—red eyes aren't natural in any humans who aren't suffering from albinism. Your hair alone is proof enough that you're anything but. The men and women of the Vantas family also seem to be mostly immune to heart disease. There is no record of any such affliction occurring within your known family tree." Snowman paused for a moment, blowing a smoke ring as though to increase the dramatic tension. "Oh—and then there are the superpowers." Karkat was so stunned that for a minute he lost the ability to reply.

"Superpo—what superpowers? I've never heard of any superpowers…"

"Says the child most likely to inherit the Vantas family title," replied Snowman smoothly. "Whether you are aware of it or not—and you most likely are not—you are to become the next Blood Knight. Are you prepared to accept that mantle?" Snowman smiled cryptically.

"Fuck you and everything you stand for. I'm leaving." The gate to the Vantas plot swung suddenly shut despite the absence of a breeze.

"Please, do me the favor of hearing me out. Leaving a discussion for no good reason is hardly a stellar example of etiquette." Snowman's words were like silk: they wove together and found their way into Karkat's mind, and he found himself rooted to the spot.

_Remember._ But he couldn't! _Remember._ Remember what?

"Please, follow me." Snowman beckoned with a single finger and Karkat found himself forced to comply.

_Knight of Blood, remember. Please. _Karkat shook his head thoroughly, trying to chase out the words springing unbidden to the top of his mind. It was insomnia, was all; lack of sleep and a still-lingering headache mingling with Snowman's horseshit.

"Look." Snowman and Karkat had reached the opposite end of the small, glassy-smooth pond in the Vantas burial plot.

This was one of the oldest parts of the graveyard, where Vantases had been buried since before the colonists ever reached America (yeah, Karkat had some Native American in him. Don't look so surprised). The graves here, where there were gravestones, were old and crumbling, the lettering barely legible. Snowman traced the lines of one with a gloved fingertip. The only part legible was a surname: _Vantas._

"These are your ancestors, Karkat Vantas. You are destined to follow in their footsteps as Kankri never was. Your powers have awakened, but the things you've done—self-healing, the transformation—those are only the beginning." Suddenly, Karkat felt Snowman's grip on him fade, and he was able to move again.

"What the actual _FUCK?_" he practically screamed, frothing with rage. "_WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM? YOU'RE A GODDAMNED LUNATIC!" _Snowman smiled, the same smile she'd been wearing the entire time—her lips just barely turned up at the edges in what almost now seemed like a condescending smirk.

"I'm not the one who's hallucinating right now, though."

With those words, Snowman simply…ceased being where she was. There was no trace of her presence.

Shaking slightly, Karkat returned to the site of his mother's grave. The only sign that anything had happened was the white rose on Kankri's gravestone, and the faint scent of cigarette smoke on the air.

"Holy shit. Holy fucking shit." Karkat was fucking _sick_ of bizarre hero bullshit. Was this a typical start to one's high school career? He didn't think so. The superhero part was _definitely_ out of the ordinary.

He looked at the back of his hand. Though it was smeared, Sollux's number was still legible, written in black pen. On an impulse, he dialed, despite knowing perfectly well that his fellow hero would still be in school.

To his surprise, Sollux answered on the second ring.

"Who ith thith?"

"Karkat."

"Where are you? You didn't thend in a note or anything, it wath weird."

"You kept me up until 11:30 at night. I fell asleep and woke up after school had already started with a raging migraine, so Jack let me stay home. Why the fuck did you even pick up the phone, you idiot? Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

"KK, it'th thecond period. I have Graphic Communicationth, otherwithe known ath the clath my dad teacheth that I already know by heart but thtill have to take or elthe the thchool thythtem won't let me into the more advanthed clatheth. It'th Foundationth of Tech thanth the clathwork, and did I mention my dad teacheth it? He letth me get away with whatever I want ath long ath I'm not too obviouth about it."

"Wait, so that Captor dude who teaches Foundations actually is your dad?" Karkat was somewhat startled by this revelation.

"Duh. Now, I'm athuming you have a good reathon for calling me in the middle of thecond period?" Sollux's voice is dripping sarcasm.

"I just visited my brother's grave and I met this really creepy woman who knew my family and she knew who I was and I don't know how."

"Wait, _what?"_

"She said her name was Snowman—it was weird as fuck, what kind of name is that supposed to be? And she started talking about my brother, some bullshit or other—and she knew about my powers." Karkat looked surreptitiously around to make sure he was alone. "She said she was interested in the family mutation, and she said outright that she knew I had superpowers. And she said something else—that I was the next 'Blood Knight,' whatever the fuck that means." Karkat left the graveyard in a hurry, keeping his shoulders hunched and face hidden. "You're the you-know-what, do you know what a blood knight is?"

"We can't talk about thith over the phone. Jutht be careful, okay? I'll have to do thome rethearch, I know I've heard that title before but I don't know where. Don't worry about it for now—but if you thee that woman again, run like fuck and don't look back. She can't be good newth…Oh, thit. Lithen, I have to go. Dethpite my free rein over thith clathroom, there'th an adminithtrator coming and he won't take kindly to my openly ecthpothed thell phone. I'll talk to you later." With that, Sollux hung up.

"Fuck you very much." Karkat began making his way back to the house, trying to pretend like nothing had happened, but it kept resurfacing. His eyelids felt like lead. Yeah, he should've just gone back to sleep.

Why did his life have to be so _confusing?_ On his very first day of school, he'd been attacked by a full horde of supervillains and heroes before getting out early. On his second day of school, he'd flipped his shit in the middle of Physics and had to leave class. Today should've been his third day, but he'd skipped already and had instead spent the morning being cornered by a woman who refused to give her real name.

He just wanted to have one normal day of school. Was that too much to ask?

* * *

**A/N: Short chapter is short. I'm sorry this is so weird and confusing. Watch as I goof around with my descriptive writing style which is finally finding its way into this fic. Finally. Everything is being badly explained because I have too much homework and I'm staying up way too late at night; I didn't have time to proofread or edit this so hopefully it's coherent enough to do its job. I need an Advil. The dream sequence is supposed to be baffling; I wrote it that way on purpose. I'll elaborate on that more in the next chapter. Which might also be delayed. I have a massive homework assignment to do this weekend because AP classes are AP classes, and I only have one page of this written in advance. I PROMISE I WILL GO BACK AND EDIT THIS. Eventually. **


	6. Chapter 6

Apparently, a normal day of school was _not _too much to ask. In fact, Karkat got to experience several normal weeks, which surprised him far too much.

He began to fall into a routine: he would go to school, avoid John, ride the bus home, and do homework for an hour, after which Sollux would come over and teach Karkat hero skills until around ten, when Sollux had to go patrolling in the city. The main goal of most of their meetings was to discover Karkat's hidden powers.

One eventful evening, Sollux flew both of them to the beach near the city and dropped Karkat unceremoniously into the water.

"I wath _trying _to thee if you had aquatic powerth," he lisped when Karkat screamed in his face after nearly drowning.

"I'm not a fucking good swimmer! I've only been to the beach about five times in my entire fucking life, you dumbass, how would I have _aquatic powers?_"

"We have to try everything," Sollux grinned, his hero form fangs pointing untidily in every direction. Karkat couldn't help but think that the guy really needed braces.

Another time, Sollux didn't even bother with the water—he just dropped Karkat in midair, before catching him with telekinesis less than five feet off the ground.

This time, Karkat's only response was "FUUUUUUCK!"

In the end, their constant attempts came to nothing—it seemed Karkat's powers were more elusive than Sollux had originally hoped. The only hint of something that might have been a power had been Karkat's terrible nightmare.

It kept repeating itself, playing over and over in his head. The screams of the dying and the pleading of Karkat's friends haunted him at all hours. He couldn't sleep at night anymore, because every night he would see the same images, of everyone dying in a blur of rainbow blood. Every time, he couldn't move.

He never did ask Jack about Snowman. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to know who she was, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. There had been a look in her eyes all throughout their encounter, and he knew it had to mean something. She'd called him a Blood Knight, whatever that meant, and it clearly meant something.

Three weeks passed since the first day of school, and the air turned sharp and crisp. The first few leaves dropped from the trees, and the sky was filled with puffy white clouds.

Karkat dragged himself to the bus stop, bags under his eyes. He didn't have time or energy to admire the beautiful day, because the sun had only just risen and he was so fucking done. This public school thing was the worst idea he had ever had, he decided. He'd had the nightmare again last night, and screams of pain kept echoing in his ears.

The school bus smelled like pot that day. Karkat settled himself in the back as usual, pausing only to flip off John when he tried to fool Karkat with a hand buzzer. A couple assholes were sitting a few seats in front of Karkat, passing around a bong. Karkat resisted the urge to shove it up their asses.

"Hi, Karkat." Great. The last thing he needed was a conversation with fucking Nepeta. He turned slightly, acknowledging her presence with a grunt, but something about her seemed…off. Her cat-shaped knit hat, which he'd never seen her without, was pulled down over her eyes, and she was huddling inside of her olive-green jacket without even putting her arms through the sleeves.

"You feeling okay?" he asked bluntly, casting a tired glance at the petite girl.

"Huh? Oh…I'm fine," she answered. "Just tired."

"Me too." Karkat slumped against the back window, his eyes almost fluttering shut before THE BLOOD AND SCREAMING SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK crashed into his conscious mind and scared him back to alertness. He sat bolt upright, painfully aware of the sound of his own heartbeat. His pulse almost calmed him as it pounded in his ears. Nepeta didn't even turn to glance in his direction.

He forced himself to take a deep breath, imagining that he could sense the blood pulsing through his veins and imagining the calmness spreading through him, like a warming light.

For a few moments, he almost thought that he could actually sense every single blood cell making its way through the pathways of his body, forming the shape that was him, but then the sensation passed.

Why the fuck was the bus so quiet? Karkat sat up straighter, looking over the top of the seat in front of him. The students sitting there, who had previously been arguing over their weed, were collapsed, smiling placidly, against each other. It wouldn't have been weird (they _were_ stoners, after all), except for the fact that everyone on the bus was doing the same thing. All down the aisle, students were lolling calmly and quietly in their seats, smiling contentedly. It was creepy as fuck.

Nepeta sighed. She pulled off her omnipresent cat hat to reveal a matted tuft of strawberry-blonde hair, clutching the knit garment to her chest. She was the only person on the bus who wasn't smiling.

What. The. Fuck. Was this one of John's pranks? Had he pumped laughing gas into the school bus or something? Karkat groaned, unzipping his backpack and retrieving his unfinished Physics homework, and everything suddenly snapped back to normal.

"Karkitty? Did you feel that?" Nepeta asked, putting her hat back on.

"How the fuck could I not? Just…fuck off, okay? I'm doing my homework." Karkat began scribbling numbers, completely ignoring everyone else around him. He was _so fucking DONE. _

"Hey! Kaaaaaaaarkaaaaaaaat!" Great. Vriska was yelling at him.

"Shut the fuck up and leave me alone," he hollered back. "I'm doing my fucking homework, okay? I don't have time for your ridiculous bullshit."

"But Karkat, I want your attention! Pleeeeeeeease?" Vriska leaned over the top of the seat, grinning. She was wearing a Pirates of the Caribbean T-shirt and for some unexplainable reason, an eyepatch over her left eye.

"Fuck it, you have ten seconds. Ten…nine…eight…"

"John wants to talk to you when we get to school."

"Why couldn't John fucking tell me himself?"

"You're no fuuuuuuuun," Vriska complained, grinning. She really didn't look that offended. "He says it's impoooooooortant, though, so you better show."

"Fuck off." Karkat turned back to his Physics homework. When the bus arrived at school, he high-tailed it past John and Vriska and towards his locker. The dorky prankster dumbass could handle it if Karkat dissed his offer.

Mr. Hussie barely blinked an eye as Karkat sped past him. For some reason, the teacher was wearing a fake knock-off horn headband with the hero horns of Seamstress. It wasn't exactly typical school dress code.

Karkat rounded a corner headed for his first-period Physics class, and nearly collided head-on with Sollux. If it wasn't for Sollux's excellent reflexes, then they would have bowled straight into each other.

"What the fuck?"

"John," Karkat said by way of explanation.

"Ah."

"Where the fuck are you even going? The portable is that way, dumbass," Karkat informed his friend. Sollux pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose in response.

"It'th thecret."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"…Hero thtuff," Sollux muttered.

"Explain yourself right the fuck now, please."

"Jethuth, KK, when did you get tho controlling? I am the mathter here. It ith me. I don't need to tell you everything."

"You're an asshole."

"Tho are you."

"Why the fuck can't you tell me what you're talking about? Seriously, dude, I'm a mutant freak too. Can't I be an unofficial part of your fruity asshole rumpus?" Karkat demanded sarcastically.

"Calm your titth. Lithen, you're going to be late for clath. I'll tell you when I get there."

"You'll be late for class too, idiot." Sollux flipped Karkat off and continued on his way towards the front of the school.

Karkat groaned loudly, muttering obscenities under his breath, and ran for the portables, sliding in the door just as the bell rang for the start of the day.

Sollux didn't reappear, but when Karkat checked the news on his phone in the bathroom during lunch he noticed a headline stating that Psionic had foiled a major bank robbery in the city, seemingly appearing out of nowhere outside of his regular patrolling hours.

Karkat didn't see Sollux again until fourth period Foundations of Tech, which the hero-in-hiding was forced to take by the school system. They hadn't let him test out of it, something that Sollux mourned loudly every time he was given the opportunity to do so.

"Thorry about earlier," he grumbled.

"I saw the headline, you're good."

"That wathn't why I left, though—that'th the fruthtrating thing." Sollux lowered his voice, glancing sideways at his father. Karkat was currently unclear as to whether or not Mr. Captor was aware of Sollux's alter ego, but it wasn't a good idea to talk loudly about heroism in the middle of the high school.

"Why'd you fucking leave, then?"

"You know the power detector? The thing I carry around when we're trying to figure out what you can do? It thomehow found itth way into my backpack thith morning, and it went off big-time a few minuteth before I ran into you. I've never had it do that before, tho I left to find the thourthe, but then I got thidetracked," Sollux whispered. He sat completely still and quiet as Mr. Captor passed out a worksheet, and Karkat glared at him.

"What the fuck. That is my only comment on the level of ridiculously stupid that that is."

"Out of theer curiouthity, did you notithe anything weird thith morning?"

"Only that every single person on my school bus randomly actually shut the fuck up for once, with no discernible reason."

"Thit." Karkat stared blankly at Sollux. "KK, you ride Buth 175, don't you?"

"…Yeah."

"That'th pretty much the wortht buth there ith. It'th full of idiotth and people who couldn't underthtand the conthept of quiet if they tried. They all actually thut up?"

"Now that I think about it, it _was_ pretty fucking bizarre. They were all grinning. _Grinning at nothing._"

"What happened immediately before that?"

"Uh…I don't remember. I fucking zoned out, asshole, seeing as I was sleep deprived and suffering from a recurring nightmare? I'm pretty sure I've told you about the nightmares." Sollux gave Karkat a strange look.

"No. No, you haven't."

"Listen, I—"

"Kaaaaaaaarkaaaaaaaat, you're needed in Guiiiiiiiidaaaaaaaance," rang a frustratingly familiar voice from the door of the classroom. The one and only Vriska Serket leaned against the doorframe, holding a pink slip of paper. She grinned venomously at Mr. Captor.

Karkat groaned, pushing his chair out slowly and allowing it to creak and squeal against the ground before slouching inch by inch towards Vriska.

"What the fuck do they want? And why did they send _you_?" Karkat demanded as soon as the classroom door was closed. "Since when do you of all people, I mean really—_you_—help out in Guidance? You are quite possibly the most twisted person I know apart from maybe your dumbass boyfriend. You are a psychopathic lunatic who takes sick pleasure in—"

"Seriously, though, Vantas, you need to shut up now," Vriska interrupted, stepping in front of Karkat to block his path. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes were narrowed. Her voice seemed somehow different.

"Get the fuck out of my way, didn't you just tell me to go to Guidance? I'm going to fucking Guidance."

"That was a lie, loser, I need to talk to you." Karkat tried to push past Vriska, but she moved to intercept him. "You're not getting away, just hear me out, alright?"

"Fuck off."

"I'm serious, Vantas. Look at me. Do I look like I'm fucking around?" Vriska stared at Karkat and forced him to make eye contact.

"I'm going back to the classroom where things make sense. Good-fucking-bye." Karkat turned around, and Vriska grabbed his shoulder faster than he'd thought possible.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what you did on the bus this morning."

"What?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"No. No I fucking don't and if you'll fucking excuse me, I need to get back to class." _Don't kill the spiderbitch, don't kill the spiderbitch…_ Karkat growled a few curse words to himself, then turned to face Vriska again. "Fuck off."

"Tell me what you did on the bus. That wasn't normal, and believe me—I _know_ about what's not normal. You did something, and made everyone calm down and start giggling like pathetic little shits for no good reason. If that wasn't you, then I'm a motherfucking butterfly," Vriska hissed. "I want an explanation."

Karkat raised his middle finger, shoved Vriska's hand off his shoulder, and marched solidly towards the classroom door.

Suddenly, Vriska was in front of him again.

"Explanation. _Now._"

"Oh my fucking _god,_ you're persistent. Look, I don't even know what you're talking about, okay? Just calm the fuck down and leave me alone. Go make out with John in the bathroom or something." Vriska made a face.

"Soooooooo not my style, and you're getting off-topic. The thing on the bus. What the hell was it? Tell me or I will sic my pet tarantula on you."

"You don't have a fucking pet tarantula."

"Of course I do, I brought her in for a class demonstration, and she's currently in my purse right now. There is nothing stopping me from putting the large hairy spider on your face. _Nothing. _Now spill." Vriska reached into her cerulean handbag, all the while never letting her eyes leave Karkat's.

"Get the fuck out of my way and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of." Vriska pulled her hand from the purse, and perched on it was a very large spider. It was a _very, very very large spider._

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Karkat hollered, his voice moving up several octaves.

"Wow. Very manly," Vriska commented sarcastically. "I _will _find out, though, mark my words. I _will_ find out." She spun neatly on her heel and dashed down the hallway as soon as the first few teachers came out of their rooms to investigate.

"Nothing to see here. That totally wasn't me," Karkat grunted, walking calmly back into Tech Ed.

He slid into the seat next to Sollux in the back row, and when everyone else was staring out the door in search of the cause of the commotion, Karkat leaned in to whisper to his hero friend. "Sollux. Sollux, I think I might have found my first real superpower."

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry. The amount of time I took to add this chapter was inexcusable. Needless to say, since it is late Thursday night there will not be a Friday update (sorry again). I actually do have reasons for the delay, and I will offer them in a sad attempt to pacify you guys (but mostly myself. I feel really guilty right now). I'm taking two AP classes this year and a third class that may as well be AP itself, and all of my teachers love to assign a shit ton of homework-and I don't say that lightly, either. It's ridiculous. On top of that, I'm on my school's varsity field hockey team and due to practice I don't even get home to start my homework until around 5:30. I'm often lucky to get a good thirty minutes of writing time on a week day. My update schedule was calibrated for a summer schedule, before I realized that I would actually have homework this year. **

**Well then. I apologize again (jeez I'm doing a lot of this) due to the size of this chapter. It's really mostly filler to get to the next major plot point. I'd also like to announce that I will be having a necessary intermission soon, probably after chapter 7 or 8. The intermission will consist of three short chapters that will provide some interesting context for future events, and it will also update VERY slowly. I need to write some more story so that a break like this one doesn't happen again. I don't know how Hussie does it. I will announce the time of the intermission for certain when I actually decide. Also, I have a tumblr now (the url is the same as my username) and I will be posting stuff there that might pertain to this story, if anyone cares. You don't have to care. That's optional. **

**This is the only note that actually directly pertains to this chapter: Oh hey it's Vriska. And she seems very suspicious. It's almost like she's hiding something too... O.O (nobody is actually shocked by this revelation). **

**XD I'll shut up now. **


End file.
